2021 Municipal Equality Index: How Pennsylvania Cities are Promoting LGBTQ+ Rights

The Human Rights Campaign, a national organization advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, recently unveiled the rankings of its annual Municipal Equality Index (MEI). This index evaluates the efforts of U.S. cities in ensuring equality for the LGBTQ+ community.

Participating Pennsylvania Cities

A total of 10 cities from Pennsylvania were included in the index, namely Allentown, Carlisle, Erie, Harrisburg, New Hope, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Reading, State College, and Wilkes-Barre.

Scoring Criteria

The cities were scored based on five categories: non-discrimination laws, municipality as an employer, municipal services, law enforcement, and leadership on LGBTQ+ equality. The cities had the opportunity to earn extra “FLEX points” for exceeding general expectations, which are added to the total score. Note that final scores cannot exceed 100.

Harrisburg’s Significant Improvement

This year, the City of Harrisburg made impressive strides, earning its highest score to date and achieving a perfect final score of 100. This is a considerable improvement from its prior scores – 81 points in 2018, 69 points from 2019 to 2021, and 71 points in 2022.

The city attributed this improvement to specific actions like appointing LGBTQ+ liaisons in the police department and mayor’s office, enhanced hate crime reporting to the FBI, and offering transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits to its employees.

Mayor Williams stated, “Previous administrations may have preached equality, but it did not manifest itself inside City Hall. We sought to change that in my first year in office.”

The city’s efforts were also recognized by the LGBT Center of Central PA. Executive Director Amanda Arbour expressed gratitude for the city’s work towards making Harrisburg a safer and more inclusive place for the LGBTQ+ community.

2021 MEI Scores for Participating Pennsylvania Cities:

Allentown: TOTAL SCORE 88 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 8 = Final Score 96

Carlisle: TOTAL SCORE 97 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 6 = Final Score 100

Erie: TOTAL SCORE 98 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 6 = Final Score 100

Harrisburg: TOTAL SCORE 96 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 13 = Final Score 100

New Hope: TOTAL SCORE 87 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 3 = Final Score 90

Philadelphia: TOTAL SCORE 98 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 8 = Final Score 100

Pittsburgh: TOTAL SCORE 90 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 13 = Final Score 100

Reading: TOTAL SCORE 89 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 2 = Final Score 91

State College: TOTAL SCORE 100 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 6 = Final Score 100

Wilkes-Barre: TOTAL SCORE 76 + TOTAL FLEX SCORE 6 = Final Score 82