UTAH

Report gives Utah ‘F’ for LGBTQ+ equality, Salt Lake City gets ‘A’

SALT LAKE CITY — The Municipal Equality Index report for 2021 gave Salt Lake City a perfect score for LGBTQ+ equality. The rest of the state didn’t even come close. 

The report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation and Equality Federation analyzed over 500 cities across the U.S. for their inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in laws, policies, and services. This is the 10th iteration of the report and organizers say the country has come a long way since the first report was generated a decade ago. However, they say more work needs to be done. 

The index gave cities a score out of 100 points and issued an average score for each state using the same rubric. 

Per the report, Salt Lake City is one of 110 cities across the nation that were awarded a perfect score. For context, there were fewer than a dozen on the first index created in 2012. 

“LGBTQ+ people are everywhere—in every city, county, and ZIP code. Throughout its 10 year history, the Municipal Equality Index has been centered on supporting and celebrating the work municipalities do to serve LGBTQ+ people in the places they call home,” says Human Rights Campaign Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs JoDee Winterhof in a news release.

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An average of eight Utah cities’ scores came out to a score of 53 of 100 points, according to the HRC. The national average is 67 points.

The HRC provided KSL NewsRadio a breakdown of the scores in an email: 

The full report is available at hrc.org/resources/municipal-equality-index

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