As We See It

HRC’s State Equality Index reveals Nevada’s LGBT equality progress—and shortcomings

Image

While Las Vegas got a perfect score in the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index—not to mention the handful of local companies that regularly make good marks in the organization’s yearly Corporate Equality Index—it seems the state of Nevada still has a lot of work to do when it comes to LGBT equality.

Last week HRC released its second-annual State Equality Index, assessing each state’s legislation related to LGBT equality, including parenting laws and policies, non-discrimination laws, hate-crime laws, youth-related laws and policies, and health and safety laws and policies. The report reveals severe disparities between states in non-discrimination protections for LGBT people, as each state was assigned to one of four categories based on the criteria: Working Toward Innovative Equality, Solidifying Equality, Building Equality and High Priority to Achieve Basic Equality.

“Even with marriage equality the law of the land, the battle for LGBT rights at the state level continues to be a story of successes and setbacks,” said HRC President Chad Griffin in a news release. “Though a number of states are expanding access to non-discrimination protections for LGBT people and their families, a majority of states are still struggling to reach even a basic level of equality for LGBT people.”

The Silver State made the third tier of the ranking system, Building Equality, alongside nine other states. According to a news release, the rank suggests these states “have taken steps toward more robust LGBT equality, including passing non-discrimination and hate crimes laws.” Nevada fell behind 12 more progressive states for several reasons per the report, from lacking LGBT-inclusive sex education laws and transgender healthcare inclusion in Medicaid to not allowing gender marker changes on birth certificates.

To learn more about how Nevada scored and for HRC’s full State Equality Index findings, visit hrc.org/sei.

Tags: LGBT
Share
Top of Story