WASHINGTON–Today, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC), the education arm of the nation’s largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, in partnership with the Equality Federation, an advocacy accelerator rooted in social justice that builds power in a network of state-based LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, released the newest edition of its State Equality Index (SEI), the most comprehensive survey of state-level commitment to LGBTQ+ equality.

This year’s SEI comes as thirty-six state legislatures have already opened their sessions for the year, with many anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced. So far this year, Utah has passed an anti-trans “bathroom bill,” and both houses of Ohio’s state legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto to pass H.B. 68, a discriminatory, anti-transgender, anti-health care bill, likely forcing some families to consider leaving the state out of necessity for their health and safety. In a 2023 survey from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 42.9% of LGBTQ+ adults in Ohio said they would move or try to move to a different state if the state were to pass or enact a ban on gender affirming care.

The 2023 SEI’s assessment of statewide LGBTQ-related legislation and policies has placed each state in one of four distinct categories:

• Twenty states, plus Washington, D.C., are in the highest-rated category, “Working Toward Innovative Equality”: California, Maine, District of Columbia, New York, Colorado, Nevada, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Maryland, Washington, Delaware, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Virginia

• Five states are in the category “Solidifying Equality”: Michigan, Alaska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania

• Two in the category “Building Equality”: Utah, Arizona

• Twenty-Three states are in the lowest-rated category, “High Priority to Achieve Basic Equality,” which indicates an SEI score below 30: Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Missouri, West Virginia, North Carolina, Montana, Georgia, Florida, Wyoming, Louisiana, Texas, Idaho, South Carolina, Mississippi, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama

The 2023 SEI shows a chilling state of affairs: During just the most recent state legislative session, lawmakers introduced more than 550 bills targeting LGBTQ+ people, with half targeting transgender people specifically. The legislative attacks covered a broad array of topics like blocking parents from accessing best-practice medically-necessary health care for their transgender child, barring young trans people from playing sports, and removing books from school libraries that acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ+ people.

In response, last year, HRC declared a first-in-its-history “National State of Emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans,” citing the proliferation of hate against the LGBTQ+ community (particularly transgender people), legislative attacks on gender-affirming care, and growing numbers of extreme politicians fighting to turn back the clock on LGBTQ+ rights. The SEI confirms what the state of emergency set out to show: that these attacks, which overwhelmingly come from extremist legislators, continue unabated.

Amidst the backdrop of rising hate and vitriol towards the LGBTQ+ community, there were key moments that show the way forward. Michigan, a state that is home to almost 400,000 LGBTQ+ people according to a 2020 Williams Institute survey, passed the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), codifying non-discrimination protections for Michiganders. Additionally, the number of pro-LGBTQ+ civil rights bills passed in states more than doubled from last year to 50.

Other key findings from the 2023 State Equality Index include:

• Fewer states than ever fall into the “Solidifying Equality” and “Building Equality” categories - only a total of 7 - presaging more difficult years ahead in the fight for equality in the states.

• For the first time, we are seeing the introduction - and passage - of bills intending to restrict health care not just for transgender youth, but for trans adults. In Florida, a new law limits the type of providers who may provide gender-affirming care, which greatly decreases access to healthcare for transgender adults.That law and others also limit the ability of public insurance plans, including Medicaid, to provide coverage for gender-affirming care.

• Three states - Utah, Kentucky, and North Dakota - saw their SEI scores decrease enough due to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that they had to be moved down a full category in the SEI. Two states - Michigan and Arizona - saw their categorization improve.

The SEI’s rankings are based on an assessment of a state’s laws and policies in the areas of parenting, religious refusal and relationship recognition, non-discrimination, hate crime and criminal justice, youth, and health and safety.

The full 2023 SEI report, including detailed scorecards for every state and a preview of the 2024 state legislative season, is available online at www.hrc.org/sei.