The Human Rights Campaign has rated seven Illinois cities for equality for gays and lesbians.
The group scored the top six cities in terms of population, and No. 11 (Champaign), and they all start off with good scores because the state has non-discrimination laws and marriage equality.
“For the non-discrimination and relationship-recognition categories, cities can earn those points at the state level, at the county level and at the city level, so if you have any of those things, you get those points, so fortunately all of the Illinois cities were off to a nice start,” said Catherine Oakley, the campaign’s legislative counsel for state and municipal advocacy and the author of the study.
She says the cities also were scored on how they treat their own employees, police training and city leadership on equality matters.
The results, on a scale of 1 to 100
Chicago – 100
Springfield – 76
Champaign – 70
Joliet – 63
Aurora – 61
Naperville – 59 – National average – 59
Rockford – 57