The Human Rights Campaign rated more than 500 cities across the country, including 10 in North Carolina. It looked at several factors, including whether cities provide services to the LGBT community, whether they have non-discrimination laws, and more.
Greensboro was ranked highest in the state, followed by Charlotte. Winston-Salem landed on the bottom half of the list.
Cathryn Oakley wrote the report. She says House Bill 2 had a big impact on how all of the cities fared.
“Unfortunately, they were not able to receive any of the points in the non-discrimination law category and that is actually a huge chunk of the points that we have on the index,” says Oakley.
HB2 prevents cities from passing additional non-discrimination protections that could benefit LGBT people.
The Human Rights Campaign says it will release its state equality index in December.
North Carolina cities listed in the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index (MEI): The numbers below are out of 100 possible points.
1. Greensboro – 80
2. Charlotte – 73
3. Durham – 69
4. Chapel Hill – 68
5. Raleigh – 59
6. Carrboro – 57
7. Winston-Salem – 44
8. Fayetteville – 23
9. Wilmington – 21
10. Cary -- 18
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