![woofs gay bar columbus ohio woofs gay bar columbus ohio](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2021/04/08/NCOD/ecbad0e5-8898-420b-8b25-3d55f66a5a9f-12_slammers_CLH.jpg)
The trench work for equality is happening in cities most blue-staters couldn't find on a map. It's easy to sniff at the slow progress in Mississippi - but who in America is fighting the good fight like Jesse Pandolfo, who runs the gay bar in Jackson? Likewise you might fault Iowa for flipping back to red in 2016 - but almost no one is pushing harder for broad civil equality than the people of Iowa City. Cities in the likes of Wyoming and Kentucky and Arkansas are the best chance for leading their deep-red states toward overdue changes. "Cities are the most immediate iteration of democracy that we have," says Xavier Persad, legislative counsel for the HRC in Washington, DC.Ĭity councils are simply faster and more nimble than state legislatures. In every one, cities are ahead of the curve in making life more welcoming - and more safe - for diverse peoples. The better news is, states are hardly monoliths. That's the discouraging news, if you're living in any of those states, or if you care about equal rights. Nationwide, the Human Rights Campaign counts 31 states that don't have comprehensive laws to protect LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination in housing, in employment, and in receiving services. But don’t be discouraged: The arc of American history is long, and it's rainbow-colored.īack in those naive, hopeful days of 2016, the Republican candidate for president won 30 states, making them, for the next four years, "red states." Thirty is a lot of states, all with varying levels of protections for their LGBTQIA+ citizens, but we can safely generalize on this: As a group, these states are lagging. Even in the year of our lord, 2019, the US is still a sea of red (trigger warning: the 2016 presidential electoral map is bleak). After blowing through rural Georgia and suburban Kansas City in the three, tear-filled seasons of their Netflix hit, the Fab Five finally achieved what countless community and activist groups couldn’t before: Full-blown equality and acceptance of “the gays.”Īh, wishful thinking is such a privilege. The Queer Eye guys came, they saw, they tszuj’d.