MAP RESEARCH

New Report and PBS Series Document LGBTQ Equality in the U.S. South

This year, history was made for LGBTQ equality in the U.S. South when Virginia became the first state in the region to pass comprehensive statewide nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people. But when comparing the South to the progress made for equality throughout the United States, a grim picture emerges. While more than one in three LGBTQ adults call the South home, the South is the most hostile LGBTQ state policy landscape in the country.

Today, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) released a new report, LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Mapping LGBTQ Equality in the U.S. South, which details how a dearth of progressive laws and policies in 14 Southern states has led to distinct challenges along with unique opportunities for advancing legal equality for LGBTQ people in the region.

Today’s report is released in partnership with PRIDELAND, a new one-hour PBS special and short-form digital series following host and actor Dyllón Burnside (from FX’s “Pose”) on a journey across the South. From a lesbian rodeo champ in Texas to an African American mayor ally in Alabama, Dyllón discovers how LGBTQ Americans are finding ways to live authentically and with pride in the modern South.

LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Mapping LGBTQ Equality in the U.S. South explores the LGBTQ policy landscape in the South in relation to the overall LGBTQ policy landscape for all U.S. states and five U.S. territories, based on a tallying of nearly 40 LGBTQ-related laws and policies. Of the 14 states examined in the South, all but one are ranked as either negative equality states (eight states) or low equality states (five states). This means that 93% of LGBTQ Southerners live in negative or low equality states. Only Virginia is ranked as a fair equality state, a development that occurred in the first months of 2020 and marking a potential beginning of change in the South.

Click here to view infographics from LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Mapping LGBTQ Equality in the U.S. South.

The report offers both an analysis of key LGBTQ policy areas in the region today, and a retrospective look at overall changes among the states in the South since 2010. Key findings include:

• Very few Southern states have state-level relationship and parental recognition laws, with only two states prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people who wish to foster or adopt. The 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell resulted in a significant shift for LGBTQ people in the South, extending marriage and related family recognition to LGBTQ people and their families at a time when no state in the South had extended such recognition.
• The South is far more likely to have harmful laws targeting LGBTQ youth. In the 2020 legislative session, at least 10 of the 14 Southern states introduced bills that explicitly target transgender youth.
• Southern states are far less likely to have LGBTQ-inclusive protections in healthcare and far more likely to have explicit discriminatory policies. No Southern state prohibits discrimination in health insurance against LGBTQ people, though in 2020 Virginia passed a law prohibiting insurance discrimination based on gender identity only.
• Religious exemptions laws allow doctors and healthcare providers, adoption or foster agencies, and more to explicitly refuse to work with LGBTQ people and others if doing so would conflict with their religious beliefs. Eight of the 13 states that have at least one of these laws are in the South.
• Criminal justice. Despite the fact that nearly half (46%) of all people living with HIV live in the South, nearly all Southern states (11 out of 14) have HIV criminalization laws. Additionally, so-called “panic defenses” attempt to excuse violent crimes committed against LGBTQ people on the grounds that the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for the assailant’s violent reaction. While 10 states have banned the use of such a defense in a courtroom, none of these are in the South.
• Southern states are more likely to have laws or policies that make it more difficult for transgender people to update their name and gender on identity documents. Eight of the nine states that either require proof of “sexual reassignment surgery” or have extremely burdensome processes for updating gender markers on driver’s license are in the South.

While the South may lag in LGBTQ laws and policies relative to other regions, the report concludes with findings that highlight the progress made at state and local levels:

• In 2010, all 14 Southern states were ranked as negative equality states. But by April 2020, all states but one had improved their scores, and five states had improved enough to change category (from negative to low or fair).
• In 2020, Virginia became the first and only state in the South to explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics in employment, housing, and public accommodations nondiscrimination laws. Additionally, Florida leads the South and the country (among states without statewide nondiscrimination protections) in enacting local nondiscrimination ordinances, with 60% of Floridians living in places with LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination protections.

In a rapidly changing legal landscape, MAP’s LGBTQ Equality Maps track LGBTQ equality, populations, and other data by state. Maps are updated daily as changes in law, policy, and legislation occur. All Equality Maps, including high-resolution JPEG versions, are available for publication. The LGBTQ Equality Maps allow websites to embed the maps easily and for free. Visit www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps to learn more.

Take Action

• READ the report: lgbtmap.org/regional-south-tally
• WATCH: the six-episode short-form series PRIDELAND is available on PBS Voices, a new documentary-focused YouTube Channel by PBS Digital Studios. The one-hour companion special will premiere on Friday, June 12 at 9:00pm EDT on PBS (check local listings), PBS.org, and the PBS Video App.
• LEARN about your state’s LGBTQ policy tally: lgbtmap.org/equality-maps
• DONATE to support more impactful policy reports like LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Mapping LGBTQ Equality in the U.S. South