The Places in the U.S. with the Most Gay Rights
The Guardian, in the latest salvo in its British invasion, has published the best and perhaps most colorful aggregation of the state-by-state fight for gay rights in the U.S.
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We screencaped below the paper's pridefully-colored pinwheel culling gay-rights laws in the 50 states and D.C. on what seems to be a nearly exhaustive list of issues: marriage, hospital visits by partners, ability to adopt, discrimination in employment, discrimination in housing, hate-crime status, and protections against harassment in schools.
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But since the chart is interactive, it's well worth checking out at The Guardian's site.
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So there are some obvious regional trends here. Most of the most tolerant states regarding gays and lesbians, with at least some rights and protections across every issue, are in the Northeast, with a smattering of mostly Democratic-leaning states along of West Coast along with (we're still always a little surprised by this) Iowa. The salience of gay marriage in particular as a hot-button issue is also clear in the chart. In several states -- California, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon -- gay marriage is the last remaining hurdle, yet is prohibited or banned. At least it's better than the Southeast region and most of the Midwest.
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As for national trends on gay marriage? Well, there's hope. Gallup published a poll today showing that 50 percent of Americans support gay marriage. Though that's down 3 percent from last year, it still indicates a clear trend: Americans aren't as bigoted as they used to be. What The Guardian's data shows, at least, is that the tolerant half of Americans isn't distributed evenly among the states.
