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Communities prioritizing talent attraction and retention should focus on investing in equality, says a new report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). HRC’s Municipal Equality Index recently published its 2014 evaluation of municipal LGBT equality laws across the country.

According to the report, residents in communities with ‘vibrant gay and lesbian’ areas have better life satisfaction and a stronger emotional attachment to their community, as well as higher incomes, housing values, and concentrations of high-tech businesses – all great news for a local economy.

Nine Michigan cities were examined in the study and East Lansing received a perfect score, which only 11% of American cities can claim.

Nathan Triplett, East Lansing Mayor and Michigan Municipal League Board of Trustees Vice President, said in the report: ‘To build a prosperous and vibrant city, we must be welcoming to all who wish to make our community their home and place of business. While equal opportunity and equal protection under the law are clearly moral imperatives and often thought of in those terms, we also recognize that they are economic imperatives for thriving 21^st century communities.’

Of the other Michigan cities examined in this report, Ann Arbor ranked the second highest with 83 points out of 100, and Detroit ranked third with 74 points.

Communities interested in improving their local civil rights policies can visit the League’s resource page on human rights ordinances for samples from across the state, including East Lansing.

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