A statewide law bans insurance discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. (10/100)

Insurance providers in the state offer care that includes gender-identity related procedures. (10/100)



Number of healthcare providers with non-discrimination policies that include gender identity, as a percentage of total healthcare providers. (Percentage translated to points out of 10, so 70% would equal a score of 7/10.) (10/100)

SAFETY (10/100)*



A state’s hate-crime law includes gender identity and expression. (5/100)



A statewide law addresses bullying in school of trans or gender-nonconforming students. (5/100)

COMMUNITY (35/100)



Percentage of the state’s population that is protected by anti-discrimination ordinances that include gender identity and expression. (Percentage translated to points out of 10, so 70% would equal a score of 7/10.) (10/100)



A statewide law bans discrimination in housing based on gender identity and expression. (5/100)

A statewide law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity in public accommodations, and public and private businesses, such as restaurants, movie theaters, libraries and shops. (10/100)



A state’s laws allow for a transgender person to change their documentation to reflect their correct identity. 0 = no change allowed. 1/3 = with proof of surgery, state will provided amended documents. 2/3 = with proof of surgery, state will re-issue documents. Full score = state allows document change with no proof of surgery. (10/100)

*SAFETY has fewer points than other categories not because it’s unimportant, but because we found that the presence of hate-crime laws doesn’t necessarily stop hate-crimes — and that a state’s community and culture of support did more to improve quality of life.



Here’s how the states break down, category by category. Please note, we rounded out the decimals. In instances where the score looks tied, the lower state had a lower score by less than one point. This also accounts for places where it looks like we added four and four and got nine.

R29 decided to rank every state in the United States on how it supports and protects its transgender population. We looked at rights, laws, and culture to create a 1-50 ranking of every state in the union. (If you haven’t seen it, check it out here .) Since there’s been a lot of curiosity about how we got our ranking, we decided to spell it out here. Here’s how we did it! Each state got a numerical score out of 100. That score was comprised of four main categories, with several subcategories under each. We took each state's score from each category, added them up, and used that final score to rank the list.A statewide law prohibits employment discrimination based on gender expression and identity. (15/100)A statewide law prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression in schools. (10/100)