New map ranks how safe each US state is for LGBTQ+ people – these two came in last
The proportion of same-sex couples living in each US state has been revealed. (Canva)
The proportion of same-sex couples living in each US state has been revealed. (Canva)
Midwestern US states are becoming increasingly dangerous for LGBTQ+ people, according to a newly released equality index.
A map measuring each US state by LGBTQ+ rights protections suggests that middle-American states are less safe for LGBTQ+ people than Western or Eastern states.
Southern states are also increasingly hostile towards LGBTQ+ people and feature fewer legal protections overall.
Published on Thursday (31 July), the map, created by the community-driven equality index, Equaldex, uses the site’s comprehensive legal index to rank each US state.
Each state was ranked from 0 to 100, with 100 being full legal equality and 0 being no legal protections.
Western and Eastern regions of the country were far more likely to feature high-ranking US states, including Washington DC, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, California, and Vermont.
The highest, Washington DC, featured an index score of 96, followed by 18 joint runner-ups, including Maryland, New York, and Illinois, bagging a score of 94.
On the other end of the spectrum, Texas and Tennessee are joint-lowest-ranked at 58, followed by Florida and Idaho, both of which received a score of 60.
Equaldex provided context for the ranking by also providing scores for various countries. Canada scored 95, while Australia had a score of 94, and the UK was given a score of 82.
Over the past few years, US state politicians have begun proposing an increasing number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, with 598 bills proposed since January 2025 alone.
Since 2023, at least 1,641 anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including gender-affirming care bans, LGBTQ+ censorship bills, and a raft of anti-trans measures, have been proposed in US state legislatures across the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Among the most common are gender-affirming care bans for trans youth, typically proposed by Republican politicians claiming to protect under-18s in their respective states, despite research showing appropriate and timely trans healthcare can vastly improve a trans young person’s quality of life.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) estimates that, as of July 2025, 40.1 per cent of trans youth in the US, aged 13-17, are living in one of the 27 states that have passed bans on trans healthcare for under-18s.
