For the fourth year in a row, Philadelphia has earned top marks on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index, which was released Thursday. That means the city has earned a perfect score for LGBT inclusion every year since the index started in 2012.
“This is great news,” Rue Landau, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, wrote in an email to PGN. “Philadelphia has worked hard to earn and maintain its number one position on the MEI. From strengthening our laws protecting our LGBT communities to making permanent the Office of LGBT Affairs, we have taken many measures to make Philadelphia a leader in LGBT equality throughout the country.”
In the inaugural year of the index, Philadelphia was singled out along with St. Louis, Mo., for earning a perfect equality score as a city within a state that lacks positive LGBT state laws.
The last two years, Philadelphia earned 16 bonus points above its perfect score. The extra credit came from the city demonstrating it has an LGBT-specific enforcement mechanism in the Human Rights Commission, and provides services to LGBT people who are young, old, homeless and living with HIV/AIDS among other criteria.
The Human Rights Campaign of Greater Philadelphia, in a post on its Facebook page, thanked Mayor Michael Nutter and Nellie Fitzpatrick, director of the city Office of LGBT Affairs, for their great leadership.
The national campaign featured Philadelphia as a success story in the index results it publishes online. In a one-page essay, Fitzpatrick discussed everything from Bisexual Visibility Day to Directive 152, which guides proper police interaction with transgender and gender non-conforming people.
“I’m very proud of Philadelphia for being a success story and for the decades of advocates that got us to this point,” Fitzpatrick said. “We can’t just say we qualify for this (recognition) because we did before. You have to put your money where your mouth is.”
She added she has multiple priorities for all facets of the community in 2016.
“We have not crossed the finish line,” Fitzpatrick said.
Mayor-elect Jim Kenney expressed similar willingness to continue the work.
“Since my first year in elected office, I’ve been lucky enough to work with the advocates fighting for LGBT equality,” he said in a statement to PGN, “and it’s great to see that the work we’ve done has been recognized nationally. I’m committed to ensuring that we can earn a perfect score year after year.”
A record number of U.S. cities achieved a perfect score in the 2015 index, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Forty-seven cities, four times the amount from 2012, earned perfect scores this year, meaning 32 million people now live in cities that have more comprehensive, transgender-inclusive non-discrimination laws.
The Human Rights Campaign rated 408 cities based on 41 criteria that fall into five broad categories: non-discrimination laws; municipal employment policies, including requirements for contractors; inclusiveness of city services; law enforcement policies and hate crimes reporting; and municipal leadership on matters of equality.
For full Municipal Equality Index results, visit www.hrc.org/mei.