St. Louis Is Both Great and Terrible for LGBTQ Residents

And all the bad stuff is Missouri's fault

Nov 16, 2023 at 6:00 am

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Theo Welling

Revelers enjoy Tower Grove Pride in 2023.

It's the best of times, it's the worst of times for LGBTQ rights in St. Louis.

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign released their annual Municipal Equality Index, which evaluates more than 500 cities across the country on how inclusive their laws, policies, and services are for LGBTQ residents. St. Louis received a perfect score.

According to a press release put out by Mayor Tishaura Jones' office, that perfect score was thanks in part to non-discrimination laws as well as inclusive health benefits for transgender employees. The city also received positive marks for having LGBTQ city officials.

“I have heard from our LGBTQIA+ community about the pain they felt when the Missouri legislature and attorney general launched their attacks on trans kids, their families, and their doctors,” Jones said in the statement. “However, in the City of St. Louis, we fight like hell for our families."

But it appears the state laws the mayor referred to are also dragging down the city's rankings for LGBTQ residents.

According to Clever Real Estate, a locally owned company that provides data to home buyers and sellers, St. Louis comes in at No. 9 on its list of top 10 least LGBTQ-friendly cities in the country, right between Tampa Bay and Kansas City.

Looking at the metrics behind Clever’s list, St. Louis no doubt took some hits for Missouri’s actions. Clever looked at the presence of laws considered to be anti-trans at the state level and the inclusivity of statewide curriculum standards for schools.

Perhaps we're letting our naive optimism get the better of us, but we'll take the Human Rights Campaign ranking over the one from Clever. In addition to a real estate startup like Clever not being an expert in the subject area, it's also worth noting that the study appears to have only surveyed 50 metro areas. Without getting into the usual metro versus city St. Louis disclaimers, eighth-to-last is still 42nd overall.

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