LGBTQ+ Friendly City in Every Red State
THRILLIST just put together a great article on red states!
The state of the LGBTQ+ nation—much like the state of the rest of the nation—is quite precarious these days. On one hand, we’ve got swathes of motivated young elected officials and organizers committed to popping the over-inflated balloon of structural inequality by any means necessary. But on the other hand, we’ve got powerful lawmakers coming out against LGBTQ+ rights at an alarmingly rapid clip, throwing around bills that threaten to destroy all the progress of the Civil Rights Movement with a single signature. What a time to be alive.
Breaking things down into red states and blue states, especially at a time when the country is so politically and socially split, might seem like we’re reinforcing that ol’ problematic us vs. them, good vs. evil binary. But in reality, using hard numbers provided by the Human Rights Campaign’s 2021 Municipal Equality Index to determine the most LGBTQ+ friendly city in each state that went for Donald Trump in 2020 can only help to strengthen the idea that we’re all in this together. Did you know that Norman, Oklahoma, population 124,086, scored higher than Baltimore, Maryland, a city that hasn’t voted to elect a republican presidential candidate since 1988? Maybe those divisions aren’t as deep as they seem.
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE
RELATED – The Daily Beast did an article about why some LGBT folks are MOVING to red states! Despite skewing Democrat, LGBT people are flocking to red states. It’s a sign that cities in the center of the country are becoming more accepting, but it’s also an indication that traditional LGBT safe havens are prohibitively expensive. (allegedly).
