Human Rights Campaign: Los Angeles One of Top Gay-Friendly Cities in United States

Los Angeles gets mocked and dumped upon by all kinds of outside critics, but they can't say it isn't a great place to be gay.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights organization based in Washington D.C., Los Angeles is one of the top 11 gay-friendly cities in the United States. In fact, L.A. scored a perfect 100 in HRC's "municipal equality index" -- a better grade than gay mecca West Hollywood, which scored a 98.

Los Angeles stands with Boston, Cambridge, St. Louis, Seattle, Philadelphia, Portland, New York City, Long Beach, San Diego, and San Francisco as cities that scored 100.

That so many California cities ranked high shouldn't come as much of a surprise -- except for gay marriage, California has some of the strongest gay rights laws in the United States.

Even the same-sex marriage ban may change soon -- Proposition 8 has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge and the U.S. Supreme Court may take up the matter on appeal.

Los Angeles got the 100 rating because of high marks in non-discrimination laws, same-sex relationship recognition, services and programs for the LGBT community, law enforcement's relationship with gays and lesbians, its role as employer of LBGTs, and the city government's all-around gay-friendly policies.

And to think that only 40 or 50 years ago, L.A. was one of the worst places in the United States to be openly gay, with the Los Angeles Police Department literally terrorizing gays and lesbians.

L.A. ranked higher than West Hollywood in the area of services and programs for LGBTs: West Hollywood scored an 11 in that category and L.A. received an 18. Interestingly enough, West Hollywood City Council members always make a big deal about the city's services and programs for the LGBT community, but it's clearly lacking compared to L.A.

L.A. also earned a better ranking when it came to law enforcement's relationship with gays and lesbians: Los Angeles got an 18 compared to West Hollywood's 14.

West Hollywood's lower ranking in terms of services and programs isn't surprising. In the 2010 L.A. Weekly cover story, "West Follywood," it was found that West Hollywood's budget for social services has essentially stayed the same since 1985.

Anyhow, Los Angeles loves the gays.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

Tags:

gay, Human Rights Campaign, lesbian, Los Angeles, municipality equality index, Patrick Range McDonald, West Hollywood

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abramsrl

The Prop 8 fiasco is a reflection of the lack of competence of the so-called Gay leadership than representative of the general attitudes of Californians. For the most part, a small cadre of self-appointed control freaks made the decisions abut Gay Marriage and excluded others who tried to explain their errors, e.g. starting an insane dispute with the Black Community and alienating Conservative voters who would support "Gay Marriage" as a reflection of Liberty but not based on Equality. [BTW, the Equal Rights Amendment still has not passed, but some people refuse to learn for history. We might call these slow learners "the Mitty Romeny's and Paul Ryan's of the Left."]

Also, Gays' ending DADT was psychologically and sociologically required before Gays could swing enough of the general public opinion in favor of leaving Gays alone to be FREE to be who we will be.

Ironically, we still haves closet cases seeking higher office in Los Angeles for 2013. As Jerry Seinfeld would say, "What's with that?"

patrick.range.mcdonald

@abramsrl Hi Abrahsrl, Thanks for the feedback. I'm curious who you think are the closet cases in LA? You can send me an email if you like. My address is shown at the end of this story.

Take care, Patrick Range McDonald, LA Weekly