CHICAGO — Despite a long list of problems, mostly financial, Illinois was ranked as the second best state in the country for LGBTQ families in a recent ranking by Move.org.
Illinois came in just behind California and ahead of Hawaii. Move.org listed plenty of reasons for while Illinois ranked so high.
The state’s anti-discrimination laws individuals in all five major categories (employment, housing, public accommodations, credit, and state employment). Hate crime laws are also comprehensive and cover both sexual orientation and gender identity, unlike many surrounding states. The state last year banned conversion therapy for minors. And local adoption laws make it easy for same-sex couples to adopt jointly. Plus, with 385,142, Illinois actually has the second highest number of LGBTQ identifying residents.
Move.org had these other reasons:
- 5 pride centers are located in Illinois.
- 48 businesses made the Human Rights Campaign’s “Best Places to Work in 2018” list.
- 23,049 same-sex couples live in Illinois, with 16.6% of them raising children.
- There are 4.77 same-sex couples per 1,000 households.
The three best cites were Chicago, Aurora and Joliet.
The only other midwestern state mentioned in the list of best and worst was Wisconsin, which ranked as third worst.