NASHVILLE, Tenn. (OSBORNE) -- A national human rights group says most Middle Tennessee communities are failing to provide adequate support to LGBTQ residents.
The Human Rights Campaign this week released its seventh annual Municipal Equality Index. The study scores more than 500 cities nationwide on 49 different criteria.
Nashville was the only Tennessee city to rank above the national average, scoring 63 on a 100-point scale. Clarksville, Murfreesboro, and Franklin each scored 19 points or less.
Human Rights Campaign spokesman Xavier Persad applauded Nashville for increasing its score over the 2017 rankings, but also encouraged the city to do more for especially vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community.
“We’re talking about LGBTQ youth, LGBTQ homeless individuals, people living HIV or AIDS, LGBTQ older adults, and transgender specific services.”
Marisa Richmond serves on Nashville’s Human Rights Commission. She says Tennessee’s gay community has worked hard to see the scores improve, but also says given limitations imposed by state lawmakers, Nashville will never score better than a 70.
“We’d like to go beyond where we are, but those additional 30 points just are not accessible to us because the state says it’s OK to discriminate.”
Commissioner Richmond and the Human Rights Campaign’s Xavier Persad both say the LGBTQ community is seeing much more rapid acceptance from the business community.
Richmond notes that locally headquartered Nissan North American and Bridgestone tire company have unusually inclusive corporate policies.