Arlington's Score Rises On Municipal Equality Index

ARLINGTON, MA – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation awarded Arlington a score of 98 points on its Municipal Equality Index, four points up from last year. The annual MEI examines how inclusive municipal laws, policies and services are of LGBTQ people who live and work there.

Cities are rated based on non-discrimination laws, the municipality as an employer, municipal services, law enforcement and the city leadership's public position on equality.

"I am very pleased that we have once again improved our score on the MEI Index. We strive to make Arlington a community that is inclusive and open to all people and this announcement helps to provide evidence of our success in these efforts," Arlington Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine said in a statement. "We will continue to focus on matters of inclusion and will specifically work toward earning a perfect score on next year's rating."

This past spring, the Special Town Meeting voted to file home rule legislation to amend the Town Manager Act and Town Bylaws to change pronouns in these documents to gender neutral pronouns, changing the board of selectmen to the select board.

Also this year, the Arlington Police Department designated Capt. Julie Flaherty as the liaison between the department and the LGBTQ+ community and Rainbow Commission. Flaherty attends trainings related to LGBTQ+ issues and provides training to members of the department.

"HRC's Municipal Equality Index is an invaluable tool for increasing the services our town provides to the LGBTQIA+ community," Arlington Rainbow Commission Vice Chair Anna Watson said in a statement. "The Rainbow Commission is brand new this year, so having this checklist as we've started our work has been incredibly helpful. We're proud that Arlington's high score reflects the town's recent efforts like adding gender identity to the nondiscrimination bylaw and appointing Police Captain Julie Flaherty as liaison to the Rainbow Commission."

View Arlington’s 2018 MEI scorecard

The 2018 MEI is the seventh annual edition and rates a total of 506 cities on 49 different criteria from every state in the nation. Read the full report.

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