East Lansing government efforts to ensure a safe and equal environment to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community have paid off.
According to the 2014 Human Rights Campaign’s Municipality Index Report, East Lansing scored a perfect score of 100 along with 29 other cities in the United States.
In a press release sent on Wednesday, East Lansing Mayor Nathan Triplett said the score shows what the East Lansing community values.
“Being welcoming to all residents and visitors reflects the core values of our university community. It’s part of who we are,” Triplett said in the press release.
This is the third year that the Human Rights Campaign, a pro-gay civil rights organization, evaluated the different cities’ commitments toward the protection, implementation, and prevalence of equal rights for the LGBT community.
The Human Rights Campaign rated cities in six different categories — non-discrimination laws, relationship recognition, municipal employment policies, inclusiveness of city services, law enforcement and municipal leadership on LGBT issues.
Social relations and policy junior Colin Wiebrecht said the report will pressure the state government to grant equal rights to the LGBT community.
“I think it’s great,” Wiebrecht said. “I think it shows that city, state and federal government are going to take action to make cities more inclusive and open to gay people.”
Although the city got a perfect score in the report, Wiebrecht said there is still discrimination among students.
“I think ... it’s going to take time. A lot of it is educating people and breaking down stereotypes,” Wiebrecht said.
St. Louis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, St. Paul, Minnesota, Orlando, Florida and Iowa City, Iowa are among the other cities to score a p erfect score in the report.
President of the Human Rights Campaign Chad Griffin said in a statement the report shows that many cities are adopting progressive policies to ensure equality.
“In this country there is an ongoing race to the top to treat all people, including LGBT people, fairly under the law. It’s time our state and federal laws caught up,” Griffin said.
Other major cities in Michigan were ranked in the report.
Ann Arbor got a score of 83, Detroit of 74, and Lansing got a score of 64.
“It’s vitally important that local communities play a leading role in the fight for LGBT equality, especially in states like Michigan,” Triplett said. “We have worked hard to ensure that our city stands out as a model of LGBT inclusion.”
East Lansing became the first city in the United States to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation with the adoption of a non-discrimination ordinance in 1972.
