A national index that rates U.S. cities on their LGBTQ+ friendly services and support has given perfect scores to two Oregon communities: Eugene and Portland.
The Human Rights Campaign has released its tenth annual Municipal Equality Index, which looked at 506 cities. For the second year in a row, both Portland and Eugene scored 100.
“One of the changes we made is including treatment for gender dysphoria in our health plan," Fabio Andrades, the City of Eugene’s Human Rights and Equity Analyst told KLCC. "And at the law enforcement side, we have reported hate crimes and offered channels of supporting LGBTQ members who have experienced hate crimes in the community.”
Andrades says there's always room for improvement and he hopes members of the LGBTQ+ community reach out to the city for support, and to let officials know how they can better their work with their members.
The average score for Oregon cities overall was 75, higher than the national average of 67. Salem scored 90, while Ashland got 55, the lowest of the eight Oregon cities that were evaluated.
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