Mayor's Office

Madison received a perfect score on the 2020 Municipal Equality Index, which measures five categories of municipal service and access as they pertain to LGBTQ+ rights. The Human Rights Campaign, a national organization dedicated to advancing equal rights and protections for LGBTQ+ community members, creates this report annually, grading municipalities and corporations on their accomplishments around LBGTQ+ equality. The City of Madison is proud that three local, well known employers - The Alliant Energy Center, American Family Insurance and CUNA Mutual Group - also reached a perfect score this year. The full 2020 Municipal Equality Index can be seen here and the Corporate Equality Index can be seen here.

The City received a score of 118/100, earning extra points for protecting youth from conversion therapy, providing city employees with domestic partner benefits, and having openly LGBTQ+ elected leaders. All of the accomplishments represented on this Index were made possible through collaborations between city staff, departments, the Common Council and the Mayor’s Office.

While we’ve achieved a great score, there’s still work to do. Madison can still earn points for providing single-occupancy all-gender facilities, as well as creating a youth bullying prevention policy for City services. Work on both of these is underway.

I want to thank all the members of Team City who have made this accomplishment possible year after year. I also want to invite all Madison area employers to commit themselves to being a part of this movement for equality by signing on to the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index challenge. I hope that these efforts help to make the City of Madison welcoming to all.