A USA Pride flag. (Getty/ ISI photos/ Brad Smith)
The most dangerous states for LGBT+ people in the whole of the United States have been ranked.
A research team at home security and personal safety company Safe Home used data from over a dozen sources, including the FBI, the UCLA School of Law and the US Census, to rank every US state on safety for its LGBT+ residents.
To create the list, Safe Home looked at information on LGBT+ rights in each state, including levels of hate crime, support for queer families, protection for LGBT+ employees and public accommodations for the LGBT+ community.
Overall, researchers found that more than half (57 per cent) of US states did not have comprehensive legal protection for LGBT+ people, but the most unsafe state in the whole of the US was North Dakota, with a shocking -78 out of 100.
In North Dakota, there are no public accommodation protections for LGBT+ people, and there are no legal protections in place so safeguard employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in either the public or private sector. Anti-bullying laws and adoption laws completely ignore queer people.
North Dakota governor Doug Burgum also recently signed into law House Bill 1503, which would effectively allow student groups at colleges and universities to discriminate against LGBT+ students.
Other states that researchers deemed the most dangerous included South Dakota, Kansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky and Montana.
California and Vermont were tied as the safest states for LGBT+ people, each scoring a perfect 100 points in the safety index score.
California allows second parent adoption for both married and unmarried same-sex couples and protects queer employees from discrimination in both the public and private sector, while Vermont comprehensive protections for LGBT+ people in healthcare.
The state has a trans youth clinic, bans discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in healthcare, and prohibits trans exclusion in health insurance.
However, despite robust protections for their LGBT+ residents, both California and Vermont saw a higher rate of hate crimes than the national average, proving that even the safest states have a long way to go.
The other states that made it into the top 10 were Maryland, Washington, Illinois, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island.
The disparity between US states, researchers said, “underscores the room for improvement all states have in providing a safe living environment for LGBT+ residents regardless of performance in our rankings”.