Photo by Aaron LeMay - Getty Images
Milwaukee Pride Parade
Milwaukee Pride Parade
Milwaukee recently made the Top LGBTQ+ Friendly Cities List. While it is nice to be number one or among the top 10, ranking 15th among the 50 metropolitan areas in contention is quite an accomplishment. Consider that those top tier cities include San Francisco as No. 1 (the nation’s gay mecca since the 1970s), four other Californian cities, as well as the other usual suspects, Chicago, Denver and New Orleans with a couple of surprises, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Recognition required an array of criteria to fulfill, of course, but among the most important was the particular city’s Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Municipal Equality Index (MEI) score. Milwaukee, meanwhile, celebrates its fifth consecutive 100% MEI rating for the past five consecutive years.
Established in 2012 as a measure of LGBTQ+ equality of nation’s cities, the HRC defines the Municipal Equality Index as “an examination of how inclusive municipal laws, policies and services are of LGBTQ+ people who live and work there.” Scoring criteria are divided among five categories: I. Non-Discrimination Laws (to include evaluation of relevant city, county and state laws); II. Municipality as Employer (to include non-discrimination employment and contractor practice); III. Municipal Services (to include an Equality Commission and LGBTQ+ Liaison); IV. Laws Enforcement (to include an LGBTQ+ Liaison and Hate Crime report to the FBI); and V. Leadership on LGBTQ+ Equality (to include pro-equality policies and engagement). Additional “flex” points are accrued in each category when the municipality goes above and beyond the base criteria. This would include elected LGBTQ+ officials in the Leadership category or extended LGBTQ+ dedicated services in the Municipal Services category.
In that first year and in 2013, only Milwaukee and Madison were evaluated and scored 85% and 95% respectively. Madison, as capital, has long been the hub of Wisconsin’s LGBTQ political activism and easily met MEI criteria.
Raising Grades for City Services
Milwaukee’s weakness in those inaugural years lay in part with the low marks for city’s services and programs and its relationship with the community. However, due in great part to the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) LGBT Liaison, the relationship between law enforcement and the community scored significantly higher.
In 2014 Milwaukee increased its score to 91% while Madison achieved 100%, a rating it maintains to the present. Green Bay and Kenosha were added to the MEI list. The following year, 2015, saw Milwaukee’s score slip to 82%. Racine was added to the MEI (it just attained a 100% score in 2023).
Milwaukee’s score plummeted precipitously to 71% in 2016. According to the published score card, Milwaukee’s standing weakened in that year’s assessment due to evolving criteria that were not met. The MEI now included Oshkosh and Appleton.
The city’s Equal Rights Commission published its 2017 annual report citing that low MEI score and its improvement to 92 in that same year. It also expressed its dedication to raising the score to a perfect 100. Milwaukee would finally achieve that perfect number in 2018. That success was in great part due to the city’s ban of conversion therapy for minors. Then-Alderman Cavalier Johnson sponsored the ban that passed in March of that year. The city has maintained that perfect score ever since, celebrating five consecutive years in 2023.
LGBTQ+ friendly mayors Tom Barrett and Cavalier Johnson may be credited with having paved the way for the advance of equality that has resulted achieving the 100% MEI rating. Their embrace of diversity and inclusion have been a plank in the platforms of both. Mayor Johnson’s appointment of an LGBTQ liaison to his office in 2022 helped buttress the MEI category “Municipal Services.” Another contributing factor is the 2020 election of JoCasta Zamarripa as the Milwaukee Common Council’s first and only LGBTQ+ identified member. Her presence within city government strengthens government and community ties, reinforcing Milwaukee’s MEI Leadership on LGBTQ+ Equality category score. Zamarripa had also served as a Wisconsin State Legislator from 2011-2019.
Additionally, underscored by the official participation of elected officials, relationships with LGBTQ+ organizations such a Milwaukee Pride, Inc, producer of PrideFest and the Pride Parade, serve to buttress the MEI score.
The question remains, why is the MEI important? In our nation today, LGBTQ+ people plan their futures and pursuit of happiness based in part on the quality of life provided by their chosen city of residence. Vying for talented populations to provide a pool of human resources to ensure their prosperity, cities of all sizes have recognized the need to accommodate diversity and inclusion. The MEI provides the measure of success of that effort. This quid-pro-quo arrangement insures both the city and LGBTQ+ resident enjoy the positive impacts of one upon the other.
