Michigan’s Acceptance of LGBTQ+ Community High, But Falling

With dozens of pride events across the state through June and the following months, it's certainly no surprise that Michigan ranks among the most accepting state of the LGBTQ+ community. However, there is certainly room for improvement.

Out Leadership provides a detailed look into the most and least accepting states across the country based on youth and family support, legal protections, political attitudes, health and safety and employment standards. Michigan ranks positively in most of these aspects, however a few attributes ding the Mitten State.

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Overall, Michigan ranked No. 20 in the country for LGBTQ+ acceptance, which appears to hold serve with last year's ranking by the publication. However, Michigan was one of 35 states to see their score drop from last year. Michigan saw the 18th-largest drop in its acceptance score.

As a result, while Michigan is among the most accepting, the state is nearing a middle ground that is just above states that are marginally accepting.

Michigan's best categories are in the legal and political categories. Michigan has anti-discriminatory laws, but is one of 22 states that bans youth conversion therapy - both implemented during Governor Gretchen Whitmer's tenure. Still, Whitmer received a 5.0 score (all scores in the index are scored 0.0-5.0).

Alongside the ban on conversion therapy, Michigan's other 1.0 score came from hate crime protections. Michigan also scored 3.0s across the board in the 'Work Environment and Employment' category, which certainly didn't help their overall score.

The index points out that many states that saw a drop in their scores were due to anti-trans legislation. As a result, the states that are improving their scores are generally serving all LGBTQ+ lifestyles while the ones declining are seemingly more selective about which lifestyles they support.

Overall, Michiganders can see on a daily basis that, for the most part, the state is welcoming to LGBTQ+ community members, but there is certainly work to be done.