A new report from SafeHome.org, a home and personal security assessment firm, ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on how safe they are for the LGBTQ community.
Thirteen states earned “A” grades for LGBTQ safety based on their comprehensive pro-equality laws and low rates of hate crimes against LGBTQ people. At the other end of the spectrum, six states received “F” grades due to discriminatory laws and high rates of hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people.
The rankings were based on a composite score combining a law score and a hate crime score, which were translated into a final letter grade.
To develop the law score, SafeHome.org surveyed 1,004 LGBTQ Americans about which types of laws most affect their personal safety. It then weighted categories of pro-equality and anti-equality legislation and applied those weights to each state’s laws, as tracked by the Movement Advancement Project.
Types of pro-equality legislation that were taken into account to develop a “law score” included:
Laws forbidding discrimination in employment, housing, and other areas of life.
Hate crime and criminal justice laws requiring mandatory reporting, eliminating so-called “panic” defenses, and preventing profiling.
Health and safety laws upholding LGBTQ health care rights and allowing gender-marker updates.
Laws protecting children through anti-bullying measures, conversion therapy bans, and LGBTQ-inclusive education.
Laws recognizing same-sex marriage and parental rights.
Laws that contributed to a lower score included:
Laws allowing providers to discriminate against LGBTQ patients.
Laws criminalizing HIV/AIDS nondisclosure or same-sex consensual activity.
Laws limiting nondiscrimination protections.
Laws restricting LGBTQ youth rights.
Parenting laws limiting LGBTQ people from adopting or fostering children.
Laws allowing religious-based refusals of service.
To develop the hate crime score, SafeHome.org analyzed data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program on anti-LGBTQ hate crimes. It counted reports of crimes motivated by anti-LGBTQ animus in each state, divided by rural and urban areas, and calculated incidence rates per 100,000 residents.
One notable finding from the report is that while the total number of hate crimes reported in the latest FBI data declined slightly, the number of incidents targeting LGBTQ people still surpassed 2,500 in a single year.
According to the survey, 28% of LGBTQ Americans have considered moving across state lines in search of stronger legal protections and greater safety. Sixty-one percent of LGBTQ adults have avoided public spaces due to fear of discrimination or violence.
Based on SafeHome.org’s analysis, Nevada is the safest state for LGBTQ people, with a total safety score of 95.8. It is followed by Illinois, Hawaii, Colorado, Maine, New York, Minnesota, California, Michigan, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Washington State, which rounded out the top 13 with a score of 90.5.
Fourteen states earned “B” grades for LGBTQ safety: Oregon, Delaware, Wisconsin, North Dakota, New Mexico, Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts, Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky.
Eleven states earned “C” grades: Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, Kansas, Indiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Ohio, Utah, and Wyoming.
Seven states earned “D” grades: Idaho, Alaska, South Dakota, Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.
The bottom six jurisdictions — all of which earned F grades — were South Carolina, with a composite safety score of 58.3, followed by Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, the District of Columbia, and West Virginia, which ranked as the least safe state for LGBTQ people with a score of 44.7.
Looking specifically at the District of Columbia — the lone liberal jurisdiction among a group of Republican-leaning states with laws hostile to the LGBTQ community — the District ranked 50th despite having numerous pro-LGBTQ laws on the books. In its analysis, SafeHome.org noted that the District’s ranking serves as “an important reminder that good laws alone don’t guarantee safety.”
While the District ranked 10th in the nation for its laws due to strong nondiscrimination protections and the absence of any anti-equality laws, it also had the nation’s highest rate of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes, with more than six incidents per 100,000 people. Notably, the District was included in GLAAD’s 2025 tracking of more than 1,000 anti-LGBTQ incidents nationwide, including assaults, harassment, vandalism, and threats.
As SafeHome.org wrote in its analysis of D.C., “Laws create a framework for equality, but they can’t erase the hostility that LGBTQ+ people encounter in daily life.”
"I think we have an inherent human need to gather and form connections with people that are like us, particularly as a non-majority group," says Rachel Karp. "As long as queer people are not the majority, I think there will be a desire and a need for in-person queer spaces."
Karp, co-producer of the podcast Cruising, is the author of the forthcoming The Lesbian Bar Chronicles, which profiles many of the approximately thirty or so remaining lesbian bars in the United States. The 30-year-old recalls how the podcast and book were both inspired by news reports during the COVID pandemic about the closure of bars and restaurants that were unable to keep operating due to government-mandated lockdowns.
The owner of Portland's Darcelle XV Showplace says a historic plaque honoring the club's listing on the National Register of Historic Places was vandalized with anti-gay graffiti and what he described as "vile hate speech."
Jeremey Corvus-Peck said in a May 15 Facebook post that he discovered the vandalism while visiting the club earlier that day.
The graffiti invoked anti-LGBTQ tropes portraying gay and queer people as child "groomers" or pedophiles, mocked LGBTQ visibility, and called for violence against members of the community.
A federal judge has ordered St. George, Utah, to pay a group of drag performers more than $350,000 in attorneys' fees after previously ruling in the troupe's favor in a First Amendment case.
U.S. District Judge David Nuffer ordered the city to cover the legal costs accrued by Southern Utah Drag Stars over a three-year legal battle, finding it is bound by the terms of a 2025 settlement.
Southern Utah Drag Stars initially planned to stage a drag show at a private venue, but it was canceled after the owner received threats against employees' safety, according to St. George News. The group then applied for a permit to hold the show in a public park in April 2023.
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