Equality Maps
LGBTQ Equality Maps Updates: February 2025
In this rapidly changing landscape, MAP’s LGBTQ Equality Maps provide a detailed snapshot of the current state of LGBTQ laws and policies in the United States. See below for a listing of state and local level policy changes, plus MAP updates, as of February 5, 2024.
▸▸ State Policy Updates
*Note, this covers state-specific updates. For a recap of major Trump executive orders affecting the LGBTQ community as of February 1, read more here. Stay tuned for additional information about the most recent sports ban executive order.
Forced outing of transgender youth in schools
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- Ohio enacted the first anti-LGBTQ law of the year, though the bill was passed last year. The governor signed it into law in January, and the law contains multiple anti-LGBTQ provisions, including the forced outing of transgender students.
LGBTQ curriculum censorship
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- Ohio’s new law also has two separate curriculum censorship requirements. The first is a “Don’t Say LGBTQ” total ban for grades K-3, and the second applies to all other grade levels, requiring parental notification of LGBTQ-related content and allowing parents to opt-their children out of those classes.
Name change publication requirements
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- Michigan enacted the first set of good laws this year (also bills introduced last year). One bill eliminated the publication requirement for name changes, which helps protect the privacy and safety of transgender people.
Gender marker changes on birth certificates
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- Another new Michigan law codified the existing good agency policy — a simple administrative form with no medical information required, rather than a court order or proof of private medical documentation — for birth certificate changes into statutory law, strengthening its long-term stability.
Hate crime laws
See our Equality Map here and our supporting citations and additional information here.
- Michigan also enacted a new hate crime law, and it includes sexual orientation and gender identity. Michigan is now the 23rd state (plus the District of Columbia) to include both classes in its state hate crime law.
Changes in MAP’s Policy Tally categorizations
See our Overall, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity Policy Tally maps here, summarizing states’ scores across all the 50+ laws and policies we track.
- Ohio’s new discriminatory laws dropped Ohio to “Low” on our Sexual Orientation Tally and to “Negative” on our Gender Identity Tally.
▸▸ MAP’s LGBTQ Equality Bill Tracker
To continue highlighting trends across the country, included below are our current bill tracking counts for anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures.
Note: these counts may differ from other organizations or public counts for a variety of reasons, and this work is greatly facilitated by the work of other organizations including the ACLU, Trans Formations Project, and the Equality Federation and their member state groups.
As of February 5, 2025, MAP is tracking over 375 anti-LGBTQ bills across at least 43 states.
▸▸ MAP Policy Research Updates
In recent weeks, MAP has released a number of new resources — including reports, briefs, and map updates — that detail movement capacity in the LGBTQ movement and track anti-LGBTQ legislation and its effects in real time.
2024 National LGBTQI Movement Report
In late December, MAP released the latest report in its long-running Standard Annual Reporting project, assessing the financial health and well-being of major LGBTQI movement organizations. The 2024 National LGBTQI Movement Report focuses on fiscal year 2023. These benchmarks will likely be increasingly important in the face of escalating attacks from the new presidential administration.
Equality Map: Forced Outing of Transgender Youth in Schools
MAP revised and expanded our Equality Map tracking forced outing laws. In collaboration with GLSEN, we’ve added more nuance and clarity about the different ways these laws operate, and under which scenarios they do — and don’t — require school staff to out transgender youth.
As always, additional detail is available in our corresponding citation fact sheets for each map.
Research Brief: “How State Policy Affects the Well-being and Relocation of LGBTQ+ Young People”
In January, MAP collaborated with The Trevor Project and released a research brief: “How State Policy Affects the Well-Being and Relocation of LGBTQ+ Young People.”
Using MAP’s state policy data and Trevor’s survey of LGBTQ young people, the brief shows how LGBTQ young people in states with worse policies had worse mental health and were more likely to consider moving or to have actually moved due to anti-LGBTQ state laws.
Importantly, the brief also shows how states with good policies positively impact LGBTQ young people’s mental health: even despite the nationalization of politics and the fact that social media offers youth access to what’s happening all over the country, LGBTQ young people in states with better policies still reported better mental health and other outcomes.
▸▸ Learn more
- Read MAP’s 2025 forecast for LGBTQ-related policies and legislation.
- Read MAP’s 2025 forecast for voting and election-related policies.
- Follow MAP’s socials on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Bluesky to stay connected as we release new research and analysis.
