Two years after receiving a score of zero on a survey regarding protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Jefferson City's score is slowly rising, but it is still well below average for the nation.

The Municipal Equality Index Scorecard, compiled by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, examines cities across the nation and rates them based on how inclusive municipal laws and policies are of LGBTQ people who live or work there, non-discrimination laws, the municipality as an employer, law enforcement and the city leadership's public position on equality.

The MEI rates a total of 506 cities from every state on 49 different criteria. In 2019, eight Missouri cities were ranked, including Jefferson City, Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis. Columbia and St. Louis received perfect scores of 100 and Kansas City scored a 99.

Scorecards are divided into five categories: non-discrimination laws, municipality as employer, municipal services, law enforcement and leadership on LGBTQ equality. Each area is scored on certain criteria and given a total amount of points, which vary and total 100, creating the final score.

Each category also offers possibilities of "bonus" points, for criteria not accessible to all cities at this time, but final scores cannot exceed 100.

In 2019, Jefferson City received 31 out of 100 points, an increase from a 2018 score of 20. In 2017, Jefferson City received a zero — the lowest score — because it did not fill out the survey, Jefferson City Commission on Human Relations Chair Mitchell Woodrum said.

"Any improvement we've had since then, we're proud of," Woodrum said. "We're very aware we have a long way to go, but as long as we're moving in a forward direction, where we're improving the equality in the City of Jefferson — we don't stay stagnant."

All 50 capital cities are included in the survey, as are each state's largest five cities based on population. The average score was 60, with 25 percent of cities scoring less than 40 points and another 25 percent scoring more than 89 points. Eighty-eight cities scored a perfect 100.

Where Jefferson City lacks is clear from the scorecard. In the first category, non-discrimination laws, the city received 0 out of 30 possible points.

The non-discrimination laws category evaluates if discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited by the city, county or state in employment, housing and public accommodations.

In each area, cities can earn five points each for protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Some cities may have one or the other or both.

The state of Missouri, Cole County and Jefferson City currently have no non-discrimination laws for sexual orientation or gender identity in any of the three categories, leading to a score of 0 points for the city.

In an attempt to change this at the state level, LGBTQ advocacy groups have worked to file the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act with the Missouri Legislature. The legislation, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to Missouri's existing Human Rights Act, was first filed in 1998.

The 2020 session will mark the 22nd filing of MONA. Two openly gay members of the House, Rep. Greg Razer, D-Kansas City, and Rep. Tom Hannegan, R-St. Charles, filed bills in the house to add these protections.

The next category on the MEI scorecard, municipality as employer, ranks the city's policies and steps taken to ensure an inclusive workplace. Jefferson City received an 8 out of 28 points, the same as 2018.

The city got six out of six points for having transgender-inclusive health care benefits and two out of two points for being an inclusive workplace.

It did not receive the other 20 points because the city lacks a non-discrimination policy for employment and a non-discrimination ordinance for city contractors.

The city also did not receive the bonus point for allowing city employee benefits for domestic partners.

Another area where Jefferson City's score remained the same was municipal services, which assesses the efforts of the city to ensure LGBTQ residents are included in city services or programs.

The city receives five points for having a Human Rights Commission — called the Jefferson City Commission on Human Relations — and another five points for having an LGBTQ liaison in a city executive's office, creating a score of 10 out of 12.

Gail Strope, director of human relations for the city, serves as the liaison at City Hall. She said in 2019 she didn't have to act specifically in that role.

The final two categories on the scorecard are where Jefferson City saw improvement from 2018.

In the "leadership on LGBTQ equality" category, the city gained one extra point under "leadership's pro-equality legislative or policy efforts," bumping the score from 1 out of 3 in 2018, to 2 out of 3 in 2019.

Cities can earn more points in this category by being persistent in pursuing legislation or policies furthering equality, including unsuccessful efforts.

Strope said she believes this extra point came from the city co-sponsoring diversity training during a fair housing training, hosted along with the Jefferson City Human Relations Commission and Jefferson City Area Board of Realtors, back in April 2019.

"They talked about fair housing, prohibitive practices and accommodations, and it also had a fair housing legal update and the diversity training," Strope said.

The other point, bringing the total for the category to 3 out of 8, was "leadership's public position on LGBTQ equality," a score of 1 out of 5.

The biggest bump in the score was an extra 10 points earned for having an LGBTQ police liaison or task force. In 2018, Jefferson City got a zero. In 2019, the full 10 points were awarded.

The police liaison is the public information officer at the Jefferson City Police Department, Lt. David Williams. Strope said on the 2018 score, the city received the zero not because they didn't have a liaison, but because the liaison didn't count.

"We had one, but it was the chief of police (Roger Schroeder)," Strope said. "They wouldn't give us the points because it had to be someone who could report to the chief — it couldn't be the chief. So we reassigned it."

For Woodrum and the Commission for Human Relations, the scorecard is just a representation of actual issues, and while improving the score is important, it's what the improved score means that they care about.

"Of course, we're not just about numbers. That scorecard represents making Jefferson City a better place to live for everybody, no matter who you are," Woodrum said. "It just makes it a better place to live when you care about people no matter where they come from, what their background or sexual orientation is."

Going forward, Woodrum said he hopes to work with the city and the City Council to add LGBTQ discrimination protections for city employees, preventing members of the LGBTQ community from being fired or otherwise discriminated against for their identity.

He said they plan to look toward nearby Columbia and their perfect score as an example.

"Our biggest goal is to continue to improve every single year until we get to that 100 percent."