Eight KY cities and their equality scores

Every year, the Human Rights Campaign does a Municipal Equality Index, which rates cities across the country on their LGBTQ laws and environment. As noted by the HRC:

The MEI examines how inclusive municipal laws, policies, and services are of LGBTQ+ people who live and work there. Cities are rated based on non-discrimination laws, the municipality as an employer, municipal services, law enforcement and leadership on LGBTQ+ equality.

This year’s Index has been released, and eight Kentucky cities are included: Berea, Bowling Green, Covington, Frankfort, Lexington, Louisville, Morehead, and Owensboro. If you go to this link, you can see the results for these cities and dig into the results.

To make it easier to get the big picture, I have put all the scores into a table, where green is good and red is not-good. Below the table is a bullet list of what is included in each category.

Note that in all but one of the categories, there are also flex points that a city can earn for above-and-beyond items. So theoretically, a city could earn up to 122 points if they maxed out each category. But, HRC caps the scores at 100.

The findings are pretty obvious:

• Three cities — Covington, Lexington, and Louisville — maxed out their scores, meaning they are supposedly superior places for LGBTQ persons to live and work.
• Two other cities, Frankfort and Morehead, came in somewhat in the middle of the pack. Both cities did okay in some categories, but neither city got any of the flex points.
• And three cities — Berea, Bowling Green, and Owensboro — clearly have work to do to be known as even moderately “LGBTQ friendly.”

Category Details

So what does each category measure? And what can a city get flex points for?

1. Non-Discrimination Laws
   1. Employment
   2. Housing
   3. Public accommodations
   4. Flex – Single-occupancy all-gender facilities
   5. Flex – Protects youth from conversion therapy
2. Municipality as Employer
   1. Non-discrimination in city employment
   2. Transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits
   3. City contractor non-discrimination ordinance
   4. Inclusive workplace
   5. Flex – City employee domestic partner benefits
3. Municipal Services
   1. Human rights commission
   2. NDO enforcement by commission
   3. LGBTQ+ liaison to city executive
   4. Flex – Youth bullying prevention policy for city services
   5. Flex – City provides services to LGBTQ+ youth
   6. Flex – City provides services to LGBTQ+ people experiencing homelessness
   7. Flex – City provides services to LGBTQ+ older adults
   8. Flex – City provides services to people living with HIV or AIDS
   9. Flex – City provides services to the transgender community
4. Law Enforcement
   1. Police LGBTQ+ liaison/task force
   2. Reported 2023 hate crimes statistics to the FBI
5. Leadership on LGBTQ+ Equality
   1. Public position on equality
   2. Pro-equality legislative/policy efforts
   3. Flex – Openly LGBTQ+ elected or appointed leaders
   4. Flex – City tests limits of restrictive state law

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