COLUMBUS, Ohio – Columbus was one of two cities in Ohio and 38 in the U.S. to receive a perfect score on an equality index released by the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization.
The Human Rights Campaign’s 2014 Municipal Equality Index assessed LGBT equality in 353 cities across the nation, including six in Ohio.
Columbus and Cincinnati received perfect scores of 100, far above the national average of 59, on the index which ranked cities on 47 criteria, including their non-discrimination laws, relationship recognition and municipal leadership on matters of equality.
Columbus and Cincinnati earned their high scores by virtue of their “exemplary” non-discrimination laws, equal employee benefits, cutting edge city services and other policies.
The average score for Ohio’s largest cities was 83. Dayton scored a 95; Cleveland, 79; Akron, 68 and Toledo a 58.
The organization researched the 50 state capitals, the 200 most populous cities in the country, the four largest cities in every state, the city home to each state’s largest public university and an equal mix of 75 of the nation’s large, mid-size and small municipalities with the highest proportion of same-sex couples.
Thirty-eight cities earned perfect 100-point scores, up from 25 in 2013 and 11 in 2012, the first year the HRC published the index.