New Jersey’s municipalities are ahead of the national curve when it comes to inclusion and equality for their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer citizens, a new study has found.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, in association with the Equality Foundation, launched its XI Annual Municipal Equality Index on Wednesday, November 30, rating LGBTQ+ equality in municipal policies, laws and services in 506 US cities, including a dozen in New Jersey.
New Jersey’s average score was 86 out of a possible 100 points, well above the national average of 68. Five Garden State municipalities (Hoboken, Jersey City, Lambertville, Montclair and Princeton) were among the 120 US cities that scored perfect.
“LGBTQ+ people deserve to feel at home wherever they live,” said US Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ). “As LGBTQ+ Americans face ongoing bias and hate for who they are and who they love, I’m proud to see New Jersey’s municipalities gain recognition for creating inclusive and welcoming communities. To live up to our ideals of freedom, justice and equality, we must ensure that the rights, safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ people are protected everywhere.”
Here’s how New Jersey’s 12 qualifying municipalities fared:
- Asbury Park: 80/100
- Elizabeth: 71/100
- Hoboken: 100/100
- Jersey City: 100/100
- Lambertville: 100/100
- Montclair: 100/100
- New Brunswick: 67/100
- New York: 65/100
- Ocean Grove (Neptune): 89/100
- Patterson: 62/100
- Princeton: 100/100
- Trenton: 89/100.
“In fact, it’s wonderful to see how well New Jersey did overall on the HRC Index and (we’re) especially proud of Princeton’s perfect score as we hope our LGBTQIA safe space and the services we provide here helped achieve that point. inspiring reference in some small measure,” said Robt Martin Seda-Schreiber, senior activist with the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, who has been in Princeton since 2018.
The index ranked the 50 state capitals, the 200 largest cities in the country, the five largest municipalities in each state, the cities of the two largest public universities in the state, the 75 municipalities with high proportions of same-sex couples, and 98 cities that were selected by members and supporters of the state group the Human Rights Campaign and Equality Federation, according to a news release.
Each city was scored on 49 criteria covering non-discrimination policies, as well as policies for city employees, city services, law enforcement and city leadership on LGBTQ+ equality, the announcement from the government explained. Wednesday. The full report is available for review at https://reports.hrc.org/municipal-equality-index-2022.
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The index was released just days after the US Senate passed the Respect Marriage Act, which would guarantee federal recognition of any marriage between two people if the union were valid in the state where they were married. While the national average for MEI is up for the fifth consecutive year, during 2022 HRC reported tracking more than 345 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation at the state level across the country, with more than 145 of those efforts targeting transgender people and gender nonconforming. people.
“We are still seeing queer folx across the identity and age spectrum facing even more violence on many different fronts, especially our transgender youth,” Seda-Schreiber said in a statement. “Here at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice we absolutely respect how far our community has come, but we also realize how far we have to go, so we still need to come together to recognize, respect and love one another in at all times and in everything.” ways we can.”