May 2021 Updates to Equality Maps

MAP's interactive LGBTQ Equality Maps provide a comprehensive look at the current state of laws and policies impacting LGBTQ people across the United States. The Equality Maps offer a state-by-state comparison of the policy landscape and gaps in protections for LGBTQ people across the country.

To keep you informed on this regularly changing landscape, here are the updates as of May 2021.

ICYMI: Two New Equality Maps & LGBTQ Policy Spotlight Report About Transgender Youth

In case you missed it, we added two new maps to our Equality Maps, tracking new harmful laws states have enacted that target transgender youth: bans on transgender youth participation in sports and bans on best practice medical care for transgender youth.

Now on the books in eight states, sports bans targeting transgender youth prevent them from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity:

• Alabama, Montana and West Virginia are the most recent states to enact laws banning transgender youth from participating in sports.
• Arkansas passed a second law allowing the state's attorney general to take legal action against schools that allow transgender youth to participate in sports.

MAP's new report, LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Efforts to Ban Health Care For Transgender Youth, provides a deeper overview of the legislative efforts across the country to ban best practice medical care for transgender youth, the harmful impacts these bills could have, and what best practice medical care for transgender youth actually looks like.

Important Updates in the States

Identity Documents

• Following a delay in implementation due to COVID-19 restrictions, New Jersey implemented a gender-neutral "X" option for driver's licenses. New Jersey joins 19 other states and D.C. that now allow residents to mark M, F, or X on their driver's license.
• Ohio announced it would not appeal an earlier federal court ruling that found the state's ban on updating gender markers to be unconstitutional. The state plans to have a new process for updating gender markers on birth certificates by June.
• Montana's SB280 was signed into law, which adds surgical requirements in order to update gender markers on birth certificates. Formerly, the state issued new birth certificates without any medical requirements or court order.

Religious Exemptions

Montana became the second state since 2015 to pass a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which permits people, churches, non-profit organizations, and sometimes corporations to seek exemptions from state laws that burden their religious beliefs. The legislature rejected an amendment that would have ensured that local nondiscrimination ordinances in the state are upheld.

Update to Alaska's Equality Ranking

Alaska's state Human Rights Commission announced that, reflecting the ruling in Bostock, it is now illegal in Alaska to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, credit and financing, and "practices by the state or its political subdivisions" - which applies to adoption and foster care services, as well as to public education. This development moves Alaska from "low" to "fair" on our overall LGBTQ policy tally.

Advances in Local Communities to Prohibit Discrimination

Local cities and communities continue to make advances in securing vital nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people.

Comprehensive nondiscrimination ordinances were passed in:

• Hazel Park, Michigan
• Scottsdale, Arizona

Partial nondiscrimination ordinance was passed in:

• Buncombe County, North Carolina: the ordinance includes sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and public accommodations only. Although housing protections are not included, the ordinance says the county will assist residents in filing complaints of housing discrimination with the state's housing commission.
• Asheville, North Carolina: the ordinance takes the same approach as Buncombe County's, leaving housing discrimination to the state while also committing to assisting residents file those complaints.

Local communities have successfully worked to ban the discredited and harmful practice of conversion "therapy," including:

• Scranton, Pennsylvania
• Bloomington, Minnesota
• Lawrence, Kansas

Protections in Health Care for LGBTQ People

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it would restore protections for health care services to include prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This reverses a Trump administration rule that narrowly defined "sex" to mean sex assigned at birth, which made it easier for doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies to deny health coverage to transgender people. HHS cited last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bostock, which found discrimination on the basis of sex to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Learn more about the impact Bostock of on nondiscrimination protections.

To schedule an interview with a MAP researcher regarding the state of LGBTQ equality or for questions please contact Rebecca Farmer at rebecca@lgbtmap.org.

About MAP: MAP's mission is to provide independent and rigorous research, insight and communications that help speed equality and opportunity for all. MAP works to ensure that all people have a fair chance to pursue health and happiness, earn a living, take care of the ones they love, be safe in their communities, and participate in civic life. www.lgbtmap.org