Iowa City was recognized Thursday as one of the nation’s most progressive cities in terms of LGBTQ civil rights.
The city received a score of 100, a perfect score, from the nation’s largest civil-rights organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, the Human Rights Campaign, on its 2014 Municipal Equality Index released Thursday.
The index measures and scores a municipality on such things as LGBTQ non-discrimination laws, relationship recognition, and municipal services. The average score is 59 out of 100.
Iowa City received a score of 88 plus 14 bonus points to reach the maximum limit of 100. Des Moines received 85 points, Davenport received 85, Cedar Rapids received 68, and Sioux City received 61.
In the area of non-discrimination laws, Iowa City scored 18 out of 18 and 15 out of 15 for municipal services, with nine bonus points for providing services to LGBT youth and elderly and people with HIV/AIDS.
Regarding the municipality as employer, the city scored 22 out of 29, losing points for not providing transgender-inclusive health-care benefits and a city contractor equal benefits ordinance, but it did earn 2 bonus points for having an “inclusive workplace.”
Under law enforcement, concerning reporting of hate crimes and engagement with the LGBT community, the city scored 18 out of 18 points.
Finally, for its relationship with the LGBT community, the city scored 3 out of 8 points, losing points for lacking “Leadership’s Pro-equality Legislative/Policy Efforts,” the index noted, but did earn bonus points for having openly LGBT elected or appointed municipal leaders.
Iowa City’s score last year was 84 plus 6 bonus points.
— by Cory Porter