A report from USA Today says that Nevada is the best state for LGBTQ+ people, while Alabama is the worst.
The states that are next worst for LGBTQ+ people are:
- Wyoming
- Montana
- The state of North Dakota
- Kentucky
- The state of South Dakota
- Idaho
- Michigan
- Tennessee
- Kansas
The report says that unlike most states, which have laws that require police to report hate crimes, Alabama police do not report hate crimes based on gender or sexual orientation. There are laws in the state that are bad for the LGBTQ+ community. In 2017, Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill that would let religious adoption agencies say no to putting a child with an LGBTQ family. This is an example from the report.
North Dakota, on the other hand, has the lowest number of LGBTQ+ people of any state: 2.7%, or about 16,000 people. It is one of 26 states that have laws that make it illegal to do things that pose a low or no risk of giving someone the human immunodeficiency virus.
After Nevada, these states are the best for LGBTQ+ people:
- Vermont
- New York City
- Oregon
- California
- Delaware
- The state of New Mexico
- Maine
- Illinois
- Rhode Island
Oregon is number one on the list of states with the most LGBTQ+ residents (5.6%, or about 183,000 people). The most LGBTQ+ people live in California than anywhere else (1,615,000).
Even though Oregon is friendly to LGBTQ+ people, USA Today says that 31 hate crimes based on gender identity or sexual orientation were reported in Oregon in 2018. This is one of the highest hate crime rates of all states.
Nevada is the best state for LGBTQ+ people, so there aren’t too many hate crimes there. From 2009 to 2019, the state passed 34 laws to protect the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ people.
USA Today made a list of the best and worst states for LGBTQ+ people based on three factors: the number of hate crimes based on gender and sexual orientation reported per 100,000 people, the number of laws that protect the LGBTQ+ community, and the percentage of each state’s population that identifies as LGBTQ+.
Virginia did not make the list of the top 10 best states for LGBTQ+ people, but it is getting closer to giving everyone the same rights. In 2020, lawmakers in Virginia passed a bill that would give LGBTQ+ people full protection. Virginia was the first Southern state to do this.
