Here are four responses that I receivedĬolleen – As an openly gay minister from a liberal church here in Grand Rapids I am contacted throughout the year by teenagers or parents of LGBTQA+ youth.
I found the high score somewhat unbelievable, based on interactions and conversations I have had in recent years with those who identify as LGBTQ, so I sent the MLive article and the HRC scorecard to numerous people to get their response. Below is a chart of how the City of Grand Rapids scored, looking at the following areas: non-discrimination laws, municipality as employer, law enforcement and leadership on LGBTQ equality. The LGBTQ-friendly status was based on a metric that comes from the national organization, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Last month, MLive ran a story about the City of Grand Rapids receiving a high score for being an LGBTQ-friendly city.