The Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s leading LGBT advocacy organizations, has ranked Los Angeles and Long Beach among 11 U.S. cities that lead the nation in LGBT equality. West Hollywood ranks 12th.
The HRC survey of 137 cities considered such factors as a city government’s relations with LBGT residents, its recognition of same-sex partnerships, whether it has laws that bar discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, how it treats LBGT city employees, the attentiveness of law enforcement to LGBT issues, its provision of services for LGBT people and the city’s public advocacy for LGBT rights.
In addition to Los Angeles and Long Beach, other cities scoring 100 points on the HRC survey include Boston, Cambridge, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and St. Louis.
West Hollywood, with a score of 98, ranked above the other 126 cities. It ranked above Los Angeles and Long Beach as an employer of LGBT people, with a score of 26 compared to 20 for Los Angeles and 24 for Long Beach. It ranked below Los Angeles and Long Beach in measures of the services it provides to LGBT residents and the attentiveness of local law enforcement to LGBT issues. In the measure of services, West Hollywood had a score of 11 compared with 18 for Los Angeles and 13 for Long Beach. West Hollywood had a score of 14 in the law enforcement measurement, compared with a score of 18 for both Long Beach and Los Angeles.
The city had not significantly increased its social services spending since 1985, save for an increase of $250,000 in the current budget. Recently, Roger Coggan, director of legal services at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, complained that West Hollywood Sheriff’s deputies have abused nonwhite gay residents.
