These are the 23 states with little to no protections for LGBTQ people – 24/7 Wall St.

Progress has been made in improving the civil rights of LGBTQ Americans in recent years, including in 14 states, including Illinois, Minnesota, and Colorado, as well as at the federal level. A landmark 2015 Supreme Court ruling extended all rights and benefits of marriage to same-sex couples, and in 2020 the High Court ruled that Americans can seek recourse for employment discrimination based on l sexual orientation or gender identity through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (Discover other ways American life has changed over the past decade.)

However, not all states protect their LGBTQ residents. In Pennsylvania, where on November 11, 36-year-old Angel Naira became the 47th transgender or gender nonconforming person to be violently killed in the United States this year. identity. (These are the states with the most hate groups per capita.)

Keystone State also lacks LGBTQ protections in other areas, including adoption and foster care. Despite this, Pennsylvania actually ranks middle when it comes to LGBTQ equality. The Movement advancement project, a nonprofit civil rights group, has identified nearly two dozen states that offer less civil protections to their LGBTQ residents than Pennsylvania.

Many of these states exclude LGBTQ people from their anti-discrimination laws. Others have passed laws that specifically target people based on their sexual orientation and / or gender identity. Additionally, many states still allow conversion therapy, a pseudoscience that attempts to change sexual orientation, and allow defendants to claim temporary insanity when charged with assault or murder if the victims were people. LGBTQ making unwanted sexual advances.

Click here to see the 23 states that offer little or no protections to LGBTQ people

To identify states where LGBTQ communities have the least legal protections, 24/7 Wall St. examined the non-discrimination laws (or lack thereof) in each state, as reported by the Movement Advancement Project in early November. 2021. The percentage of each state’s LGBTQ population comes from data released by the UCLA Williams Institute School of Law, and is current as of July 2020.

Note that the specificities cited for each state are not exhaustive. Either way, there are additional examples of how LGBTQ communities lack legal protection.