By Stephen Oman
Murphy News Service
The Human Rights Campaign gave the city of Minneapolis a perfect score for LGBT inclusiveness and support in its annual Municipality Equality Index (MEI).
The Human Rights Campaign’s MEI measures support for the LGBT community by looking into laws, programs, policies and services offered by communities around the country.
The cities are scored from 0-100 based on six categories such as relationship recognition, municipal services and the municipality as an employer.
Minneapolis was one of 25 municipalities to receive a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign. They surveyed 291 cities.
“The city, and especially the mayor, has been very supportive of the LGBT community,” said Eric Jensen, communications director for Project 515, a group that advocates for equal rights for the LGBT community in Minnesota law.
Mayor R.T. Rybak said things have not always been this way in Minneapolis. Rybak recalled his time working in journalism in Minneapolis when law enforcement and the LGBT community would have frequent run-ins. “We have had such a massive culture shift,” he said.
“There is not a single block in Minneapolis that has not been made better by the LGBT community,” Rybak said.
One area in which Minneapolis did not receive perfect marks was offering domestic partner benefits by the city to its employees. That is something the city has wanted to do since the 1980s but the state wouldn’t allow it, Rybak said. With the current law allowing same-sex marriage in the state, employees of the city can get spousal benefits.
The other area in which Minneapolis did not receive a perfect score was municipal services, specifically “enumerated anti-bullying school policies.”
Minneapolis earned 88 points out of a possible 100 but received 13 bonus points, final scores cannot exceed 100.
Bonus points were given for openly LGBT elected or appointed municipal leaders, city engagement with the LGBT community, being pro-equality despite restrictive state laws, providing services to particularly vulnerable populations of the LGBT community and offering transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits to employees of the city.
Minneapolis earned 91 total points in the 2012 MEI. It improved in the areas of municipality services and law enforcement.
The Human Rights Campaign also evaluated St. Paul and Rochester. St. Paul received a 96, getting perfect scores in non-discrimination laws, relationship recognition and law enforcement. It received 12 out of a possible 24 points in municipality as an employer, however. St. Paul received 67 points in the 2012 MEI, and it has improved in almost every category this year.
Rochester received a 66, with low marks in the categories of municipality as employer and municipal services. They did receive high scores in relationship recognition and relationship with LGBT community. This was Rochester’s first year being evaluated by the Human Rights Campaign.
The Human Rights Campaign’s MEI studied 137 municipalities in 2012, and it more than doubled that number in 2013. Municipalities studied varied in size, and cities in every state were evaluated.
Detailed criteria and scores for all 291 municipalities can be found at HRC.org.