United States LGBT Equality Index

The most LGBT-friendly places in United States

The Equality Index measures the current status of LGBT rights, laws, and freedoms as well as public attitudes towards LGBT people.

Equality Index ?

0 (Less Equal)

100 (More Equal)

Largest Disparities

Regions where legal progress and public views don't align. Comparing the legal rights and the public opinion highlights regions where the public's support has advanced past (or fallen behind) legal progress. These may be potential areas for advocacy and change. (Countries without public opinion data are excluded.)

Legal Progress Ahead of Public Opinion

State and Territory	Legal Index	Public Opinion Index	Difference
1. New York	100	64	-36
2. Michigan	100	65	-35
3. Pennsylvania	97	63	-34
4. Washington, D.C.	100	66	-34
5. Maryland	100	67	-33
6. Utah	91	58	-33
7. California	100	69	-31
8. Illinois	100	69	-31
9. Hawaii	95	65	-30
10. New Jersey	100	70	-30

United States Equality Index

Which states are the most LGBT-friendly? The Legal Index scores the legal rights and freedoms LGBTQ+ people have while the Public Opinion Index scores how the general public feels in each region.

State and Territory	Equality Index	Legal Index	Public Opinion Index
1. Massachusetts	89	100	78
2. New Hampshire	88	100	76
3. Connecticut	87	100	73
4. Rhode Island	86	100	73
5. Maine	86	100	72
6. Colorado	85	100	71
7. New Jersey	85	100	70
8. Illinois	85	100	69
9. California	85	100	69
10. Washington	85	95	74
11. Vermont	83	95	71
12. Maryland	83	100	67
13. Minnesota	83	95	71
14. Washington, D.C.	83	100	66
15. Oregon	83	95	70
16. Nevada	83	95	70
17. Michigan	82	100	65
18. New York	82	100	64
19. New Mexico	81	95	67
20. Hawaii	80	95	65
21. Pennsylvania	80	97	63
22. Virginia	79	93	66
23. Puerto Rico	77	88	66
24. Delaware	76	88	65
25. Ohio	75	85	64
26. Wisconsin	75	82	68
27. Utah	74	91	58
28. Alaska	73	77	68
29. Arizona	71	80	63
30. Iowa	70	74	66
31. Montana	70	77	63
32. Indiana	69	78	60
33. North Carolina	68	76	60
34. West Virginia	68	80	55
35. South Dakota	66	74	59
36. Kansas	66	73	59
37. Missouri	66	72	59
38. North Dakota	65	71	60
39. Florida	65	67	64
40. Nebraska	65	71	59
41. Kentucky	65	77	53
42. Wyoming	64	69	59
43. Georgia	63	69	58
44. Oklahoma	60	65	56
45. Texas	60	62	58
46. Idaho	59	61	58
47. Louisiana	59	62	55
48. South Carolina	58	65	51
49. Arkansas	57	65	49
50. Mississippi	57	68	45
51. Alabama	56	65	48
52. Tennessee	55	59	52

Equality Index Methodology

Equaldex's Equality Index is a rating from 0 to 100 (with 100 being the most equal) to help visualize the legal rights and public attitudes towards LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex...) people in each region. The Equality Index is an average of two indexes: the legal index and the public opinion Index.

Equality Index

Average of Legal Index and Public Opinion Index

Legal Index

The LGBT legal index measures the current legal status of 13 different issues ranging from the legal status of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, LGBT discrimination protections, LGBT censorship laws, and more. Each topic is weighted differently (for example, if same-sex marriage is illegal in a region, it would have a much bigger impact on the score than not allowing LGBT people to serve in the military). Each topic is assigned a "total possible score" and a "score" is assigned based the status of the law using a rating scale that ranges from 0% to 100% (for example, if homosexuality is legal, it would would receive a score of 100, but if it's illegal, it would receve a score of 0.)

If the status of an issue is unknown, not applicable, or no data has not been added to Equaldex, the issue's score is completely discarded and not included in the ranking. In cases where a law varies throughout a region (for example, a country where same-sex marriage is legal in some states or provinces but not others), the score is averaged among all states or provinces, weighted equally.

Past laws that are no longer in effect do not impact the region's current score. New laws that have not gone into effect yet will not impact the region's score until the day it goes into effect.

Legal Index

(Total Possible Score for each issue × Factor of Status of Issue) / Sum of all Total Possible Scores

Show Scoring

Issue	Total Possible Score	Status	Factor
Homosexual activity	100	Legal	×1.00
		Male illegal, female legal	×0.20
		Male illegal, female uncertain	×0.20
		Illegal (other penalty)	×0.15
		Illegal (imprisonment as punishment)	×0.10
		Illegal (up to life in prison as punishment)	×0.05
		Illegal (death penalty as punishment)	×0.00
Same-sex marriage	60	Legal	×1.00
		Civil unions (marriage rights)	×0.80
		Civil unions (limited rights)	×0.70
		Other type of partnership	×0.50
		Foreign same-sex marriages recognized only	×0.40
		Unregistered cohabitation	×0.30
		Unrecognized	×0.10
		Banned	×0.00
Censorship of LGBT issues	40	No censorship	×1.00
		State-enforced	×0.30
		Fine as punishment	×0.20
		Other punishment	×0.10
		Imprisonment as punishment	×0.00
Right to change legal gender	40	Legal, no restrictions	×1.00
		Legal, but requires medical diagnosis	×0.70
		Legal, but requires surgery	×0.40
		Illegal	×0.00
Gender-affirming care	20	Legal	×1.00
		Legal, but restricted for minors	×0.70
		Legal, but banned for minors	×0.50
		Restricted	×0.30
		Banned	×0.00
Legal recognition of non-binary gender	30	Recognized	×1.00
		Intersex only	×0.70
		Not legally recognized	×0.00
LGBT discrimination	20	Illegal	×1.00
		Illegal in some contexts	×0.50
		No protections	×0.00
LGBT employment discrimination	20	Sexual orientation and gender identity	×1.00
		Gender identity only	×0.50
		Sexual orientation only	×0.50
		No protections	×0.00
LGBT housing discrimination	20	Sexual orientation and gender identity	×1.00
		Gender identity only	×0.50
		Sexual orientation only	×0.50
		No protections	×0.00
Same-sex adoption	20	Legal	×1.00
		Married couples only	×0.50
		Second parent adoption only	×0.40
		Single only	×0.20
		Illegal	×0.00
Intersex infant surgery	20	Full ban	×1.00
		Parental approval required	×0.30
		Not banned	×0.00
Serving openly in military	20	Legal	×1.00
		Lesbians, gays, bisexuals permitted, transgender people banned	×0.70
		Don't Ask, Don't Tell	×0.50
		Illegal	×0.00
Blood donations by MSMs	10	Legal	×1.00
		Legal with restrictions	×0.80
		Banned (less than 6-month deferral)	×0.30
		Banned (6-month deferral)	×0.20
		Banned (1-year deferral)	×0.15
		Banned (5-year deferral)	×0.10
		Banned (indefinite deferral)	×0.00
Conversion therapy	10	Banned	×1.00
		Sexual orientation only	×0.50
		Not banned	×0.00
Equal age of consent	10	Equal	×1.00
		Female equal, male N/A	×0.75
		Female equal, male unequal	×0.50
		Unequal	×0.00

Public Opinion Index

The LGBT public opinion index measures the public attitudes towards LGBT people using surveys and polls from reputable organizations. This index is scored based on averaging the results of all surveys in a given region. Generally, the value averaged is usually the most “equal” response in the poll. For example, if a poll asked “Do you support same-sex marriage?” and 56% of people said “yes”, the value “56” would be used. In some cases, a survey may be weighted less if the survey is very specific or includes a specific group of people (such as Christians) and might not be a full representation of the overall attitudes of the region.

To better represent current attitudes, surveys are scored using a time-decay weighting method based on the date published. This means that the most recent surveys carry more weight in the public opinion index. Surveys from the current year and the previous year receive full weight. However, for surveys older than two years, an exponential decay of 75% applies each year. This weight decay ensures that the public opinion index is always most influenced by the most recent data, reflecting evolving public attitudes, while still taking into account older surveys to maintain a comprehensive overview. This change went into effect on July 21, 2023.

Note that public opinion data is not available in every region. In these cases, the Equality Index will only be a representation of the legal rights of LGBT people in the region. Additionally, some regions have no recent public opinion data available, so older data is used to score the region.

Public Opinion Index

(Survey Results Value × Survey Weight × Time Decay Factor) / (Survey Weight × Time Decay Factor)

Show Survey Time Decay

Year Survey Published	Time Decay Factor
2024 (current year)	0.75⁰	1
2023	0.75⁰	1
2022	0.75¹	0.75
2021	0.75²	0.5625
2020	0.75³	0.421875
2019	0.75⁴	0.31640625
2018	0.75⁵	0.2373046875
2017	0.75⁶	0.177978515625
2016	0.75⁷	0.13348388671875
2015	0.75⁸	0.10011291503906
2014	0.75⁹	0.075084686279297
(etc.)

Notes

Equaldex's Equality Index is constantly being improved and tracking it over time may not represent changes in equality over time. As more data is contributed to Equaldex, the index becomes more accurate. For example, adding survey results to a region will likely change the region's Equality Index — even more so if there is limited data on the region. In this case, the change in score could represent a change in attitudes in the region, but it may also just be an increase in the index's accuracy.
Global opinion surveys rarely include transgender topics. Especially in more conservative regions, surveys are usually limited to homosexuality or same-sex marriage. Equaldex continues to seek more international transgender public opinion data to make the Equality Index more inclusive.
The model for the Equality Index is evolving, and adjustments to weights and other parameters are likely as we continue to improve its accuracy and relevance.
The Equality Index is updated automatically as data is added to Equaldex and as new laws go into effect. When a new law or survey is added to Equaldex, the index will recalculate within a few hours.