Legislation boosts Maryland’s rating with LGBTQ+ policy tracking think tank

While the 2024 session was a bit more understated on new legislative protections for Maryland’s LGBTQ+ population compared to previous years, a nationwide policy tracker reports that the state is creating a more LGBTQ+ friendly state based off recent legislation.

The Movement Advancement Project (MAP) follows the ever-changing policy landscape across the United States and how it affects the nation’s LGBTQ+ population. The independent, nonprofit think tank regularly updates a policy map to indicate which states the group deems safer for LGBTQ+ individuals and which have more hostile policies.

According to a recent update from the organization, the legislation passed in Maryland’s 2024 session boosted Maryland’s rating among states with laws that protect the LGBTQ+ community.

The organization assigns numerical values to state policies that either improve or reduce protections for the LGBTQ+ community to create scores for the state. The group ranks a state based on sexual orientation policy, gender identity policy, and overall policy combining the two categories.

Recent legislation bolstering the state’s non-discrimination laws boosted Maryland’s score on the sexual orientation policy catagory from a “medium” to “high” policy tally, according to a May update from Movement Advancement Project.

House Bill 608 was a priority legislation for House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) as part of her “decency agenda” this year. The legislation prohibits an employer from discriminating against people based on sexual orientation, particularly when it comes to employment opportunities or wage rates.

Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed that bill into law on April 25 and it will take effect on Oct. 1.

Maryland has a 18.75/21.5 tally for policies relating to sexual orientation, according to the updated state profile from Movement Advancement Project.

Other legislative efforts from 2024 offer more protections for medical treatments and procedures that work to affirm the gender expression of Maryland’s transgender population or those seeking treatment from states that have hostile policies towards LGBTQ+ people.

Senate Bill 119, sponsored by Sen. Clarance K. Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel), places “gender affirming care” under the state’s category of “legally protected care.” The intent is to protect the medical information of persons who seek gender affirming care in Maryland from being shared across state lines, and potentially into the hands of law enforcement in states that are more hostile to transgender people.

That bill is awaiting consideration from Moore, who previously issued an executive order last year that offers similar protections.

Maryland has a 20.75/23 score on gender identity policy, according to the think tank.

Maryland was already had a “high overall policy tally” from the group, combining the scores for sexual orientation and gender identity, but the recent legislation from the 2024 session helped boost the numbers more.

The highest score a state can receive at the moment is a 44.5, while some states can score in the negative on LGBTQ+ protections, such as Tennessee, which has a -13 overall tally in 2024, and is the lowest scoring state according to MAP.

Maryland has a score of 39.5 out of 44.5, which is the seventh highest score among all 50 states.

Colorado currently has the highest overal score with 43.00 and California comes behind with 42.50. Maine, Nevada, New York and Washington also received higher scores than Maryland.

Following the 2023 legislative session, the then-new Moore administration signaled to Maryland’s LGBTQ+ population that Moore would be an ally, as he signed legislation and an executive order that aimed to bolster state protections for the community.

But Movement Advancement Program has identified areas where Maryland can further improve its score and potentially offer additional rights and protections to the LGBTQ+ community.

Currently, Maryland has a statute that says a person with HIV “may not knowingly transfer the human immunodeficiency virus to another individual.” Violating that law would result in a misdemeanor and a fine not exceeding $2,500, imprisonment up to three years, or both.

There have been previous efforts to repeal that law, including during the 2024 session, but so far none has passed.

Movement Advancement Project would also give Maryland a higher score if school curriculum standards were required to be LGBTQ+ inclusive by law.

A bill that would have added formal school instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation to a comprehensive health education standard was considered by the House of Delegates, but did not receive Senate consideration during this year’s session.

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