City Scores Perfect Marks on Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index
For the second consecutive year, Rockville has scored perfect marks on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index for its commitment to the health, welfare, safety and equality of its lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.
The seventh annual Municipal Equality Index scorecard, released Oct. 8, analyzes and rates 506 municipalities across the country, measuring them for the inclusivity of laws, policies and services for their LGBTQ communities.
Rockville scored 100/100 on the scorecard, along with Columbia and Frederick, out of the 10 Maryland towns and cities on the 2018 scorecard. Categories by which municipalities are judged include non-discrimination laws, trans-inclusive healthcare benefits and leadership on LGBTQ issues.
The Mayor and Council on Sept. 17 discussed how the city can enhance its policies and practices to make Rockville even more inclusive of the LGBTQ community. For video and more information about the discussion, visit www.rockvillemd.gov/AgendaCenter.
One of the Mayor and Council’s priority initiatives is to “Review existing codes and policies based on the scoring of the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Index and identify modifications to enhance LGBT nondiscrimination.” A list of the initiatives is on the City of Rockville’s website, www.rockvillemd.gov/priorityinitiatives.
The MEI report can be found at www.hrc.org/mei.
2018 MEI Maryland Rankings
Rockville…………100
Columbia………..100
Frederick………..100
Towson…………….91
Baltimore…………89
College Park…….86
Annapolis………..59
Bowie……………..58
Gaithersburg……57
Hagerstown…….32