The Movement Advancement Project, in partnership with Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, released a new report, “LGBT Policy Spotlight: LGBT Equality in the U.S. Territories,” documenting the status of LGBT rights for more than 3.5 million residents in the five territories.
It is the first comprehensive review of LGBT laws and policies in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the June 11 news release from the organizations.
MAP has tracked and documented LGBT laws and policies in the U.S. for more than 10 years.
Researchers analyzed laws and policies related to sexual orientation and gender identity and seven issues — relationship and parental recognition, non-discrimination laws, LGBT youth laws and policies, health care laws and policies, criminal justice laws, and accurate identity documents — that impact LGBT people.
They found that out of the five territories Puerto Rico ranked the highest overall in LGBT rights. Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands all ranked low on LGBT policies.
Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands have “negative” gender identity policy tallies similar to Arizona and Alabama, respectively, according to a news release.
American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands have “low” gender identity policy tallies.
“The United States’ long history of territorial expansion has resulted in a truly complicated system of governance and legal protections for territory residents, where even the U.S. Constitution doesn’t always apply,” said MAP Executive Director Ineke Mushovic in the release. “By tracking LGBT laws and policies in the territories, MAP will advance increased understanding of the territories as a whole, and of LGBT equality within these regions.”
Lambda Legal senior attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a native of Puerto Rico, expressed his pride in ensuring “LGBT people in the territories have access to the same protections as all other LGBT people in the United States,” he said in the release.
Lambda Legal helped win marriage equality in Puerto Rico and Guam and won the right for transgender Puerto Ricans to change the gender marker on their birth certificates, he noted.
“It has always taken longer for equal rights to trickle down to the territories, but the impact of discrimination on LGBT families is the same,” Gonzalez-Pagan said.
To read the report, visit http://lgbtmap.org/policy-spotlight-us-territories and see the map at http://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps.
Originally published by the Bay Area Reporter.
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