Huh?Bogus survey since it doesn’t even have Washington state or Oregon in the top twenty.

Not surprisedHere’s where Ohio landed:
46 – Ohio
Tolerance score: 40 out of 100
Hate crime score: 15 out of 40
Discrimination score: 16 out of 40
Gay rights score: 1 out of 10
Religious Tolerance score: 8 out of 10
Hate crime incidents per 100,000 residents:: 3.1 (33 out of 50 states)
Discrimination cases filed per 100,000 residents:: 24.2 (44 out of 50 states)
Population in support of same-sex marriage:: 45%
Population that believes many religions lead to eternal life:: 76%
With the new radical right GOP in charge of the the entire state government, look for us to slowly go back downhill.
A few years back, another group looked at the US in regards to LGBT rights, and believe it or not, Ohio was 51st out of the states and DC! We were the only state with a negative number!
I don’t look for Ohio to start climbing out of the cesspool until after the next century, if we’re lucky…

Regarding your own thoughtsPam:
First, maybe WV and VA aren’t quite as “holy-rolling” as you think they are, to score the way they did on a (presumably) nonbiased ranking, assuming it followed proper survey validity measures? People always tend to have believes that Southern states (especially) by definition must automatically be full of “holy rollers”, horrible KKK places where if you’re black or gay you won’t live to the age of 25, etc. The comments of every “liberal” and certainly GLBT blog bear this out time after time, with the venomous regionist comments aimed towards anything remotely related to anywhere south of Philadelphia (usually by people who have never set foot in the South, and base their “expertise” of what Southerners are like on The Beverly Hillbillies and Deliverance.
But I expected more of you, who actually live here and KNOW Southern people. So, what is your evidence that Virginia (ALL of VA, not just the rural or Pat Robertson parts) is characterized as “holy rollers”? Perhaps you can present your peer-reviewed research to the authors of the other study that they are mistaken on WV and VA, because “everybody knows” how holy-roller they are?
Secondly:
Thank you for shattering many inaccurate stereotypes about our own state of NC, but I call you out on one part:
More of the population is urban/suburban than rural now, but there is a downside. What that means is more people live near centers of business, education, techonology and medicine, which draw highly educated transplants from around the world. The problem here is that the conservative, more exurban/rural areas are hardcore conservative, and more progressive transplants/transient families don’t necessarily consistently vote. Prime example – the Wake County School Board debacle, where fundies packed the board taking control because lazy progressives didn’t bother to go out and vote to prevent the resegregation of the school system.
The clear assumption in what you post above is that ONLY transplants can be liberal/progressive and that ALL the progressives here are because they are transplants from somewhere else. That’s news to me, a progressive life-long North Carolinian who wide circle of friends (generally gay and politically progressive) are native North Carolinians. How do I manage to know so many progressive natives when you claim that only “transplants” account for the Bluer voting in the Triangle and other urban areas? Yes, rural people are more conservative and rural areas are more likely to be NC homegrown, but do the truth a favor and don’t ignore the MANY native Tar Heels who are diligently fighting the fight for justice (Especially in the black community, but also in the GLBT community: the leaders of almost every Triangle area GLBT nonprofit I can think of are NC natives, not “transplants”). You only perpetuate the stereotype that anyone from NC is a Bible-thumping bigot and it’s only the Northern transplants who have “saved” us from being the backwoods rednecks most liberals from outside the South think us all to be. And also, it’s not even true that transplants are universally liberal–45% of transplants to the state are Republican, so it barely “evens out” the native population in Red/Blue terms. Many leave the Northeast specifically to get away from the “liberal” policies up there and come to a more “conservative” place. So please do not continue to imply that “progressive” and “transplant” are synonyms in NC, nor the contrary with natives and conservative.
Regarding the Wake county school board issue–that is even MORE of a case that shoot holes in your “theory”, since the two hardest-driving proponents of the more “segregationist” policy, Mr. Margiotta and Mr. Tedesco, are both transplants, from NJ and NY! The Wake county school board is a “Through the Looking Glass” instance (if one goes by the stereotypes you are trying to perpetrate) of a case where it’s the natives on the school board who want to KEEP the old (more socioeconomically integrated) policy while the “new arrivals” from New Jersey and New York are the ones wanting to CHANGE the policy which would cause less racial integration.
I’m disappointed; you usually are better with your facts.

whateverI live in WV and was also surprised to  see it ranked in the most tolerant.  I would consider it a nest of apathy rather than tolerance.  Also, city attitudes would vary somewhat from rural.  Regional differences would be true as well.

to respond

But I expected more of you, who actually live here and KNOW Southern people. So, what is your evidence that Virginia (ALL of VA, not just the rural or Pat Robertson parts) is characterized as “holy rollers”? Perhaps you can present your peer-reviewed research to the authors of the other study that they are mistaken on WV and VA, because “everybody knows” how holy-roller they are?

I was not referring to the people, but the legislatures, which are quite conservative, particularly in VA, where NoVa has a high population of progressives, but not enough to offset the conservatives to control the state lege. As I noted, in day-to-day living, most North Carolinians are indeed tolerant in all but the most homogenous corners. The state has also been quite ahead of the game in terms of reproductive freedom, which is unlike many of our fellow states in the South. No, I didn’t link to the many, many posts I’ve written about the South and stereotyping, but there is a nice little search box should you want to take a look. I just didn’t feel up to an epic post, and perhaps that’s my error.

The clear assumption in what you post above is that ONLY transplants can be liberal/progressive and that ALL the progressives here are because they are transplants from somewhere else. That’s news to me, a progressive life-long North Carolinian who wide circle of friends (generally gay and politically progressive) are native North Carolinians.

Gee, your assumption is clearer than mine. I didn’t say that only transplants are progressive; the point I was making was that native progressives didn’t outnumber the conservatives for quite some time until more people of like minds tipped the scales and there was generational change. Of course I didn’t bother to write that, but I’m responding now.

Regarding the Wake county school board issue–that is even MORE of a case that shoot holes in your “theory”, since the two hardest-driving proponents of the more “segregationist” policy, Mr. Margiotta and Mr. Tedesco, are both transplants, from NJ and NY!

I’ve written about the school board in prior posts and made the point about those conservative transplants; again the point I was stressing here was that the conservatives came out to vote and the progressives were asleep at the wheel and allowed the fundies to take over. Obviously if more of the voters with deep roots (natives or long-time transplants) had gotten their less-politically, more transiente neighbors to get out and vote, Wake wouldn’t be in the fix it’s in.

HuhI mean, if they’re ranking the states based on number of hate crimes, things like that, I’m not going to argue a lot, but I live in Massachusetts, and I’m surprised we’re at #18.  I thought it would be one of the top states.
But then again, I’m coming at this as a straight(ish), cisgendered, Jewish atheist woman, so with enough privilege that I feel like maybe I’m just missing something here.

Re Hate CrimesI think it’s Pennsylvania where it’s illegal for the police to keep data on hate crimes against gays.
Sometimes having zero reports bespeaks of a worse problem than having hundreds. “There are no Gays in Iran” remember?
Virginia is Hell for Trans and IS people.  

From Wikipedia

In Wisconsin, not only is same-sex marriage forbidden, but a statute already on the books before the passage of the 2006 amendment provides that residents who go out of state to contract a marriage that would be prohibited within Wisconsin can be fined up to $10,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 9 months.

What a lovely picture of tolerance. You can’t get married in our state, and if you get married elsewhere we’ll jail you. Color me unimpressed with Wisconsin’s brand of “tolerance.”
It seems a deeply, deeply flawed attempt to quantify an unquanitfiable trait. Better for those who wish to live in a “tolerant” environment to ignore silly lists and use common sense and head for well known meccas like SF, NYC & LA.
And let us tip our hats who can stomach living in less tolerant environments and fight the good fight.

my thoughts exactlyit’s so easy to stack the deck with crime stats.  low numbers of crimes reported often just means that there is no mechanism to report those sorts of crimes.

Yeah, I agreethe inclination to actually report crimes rather than dismiss, and ignore them may be a bigger sign of a tolerant population than no hate crimes reported.
Flawed methodology.  

An additional note on native NC legislative leadershipWhile you both make similar good points, I’d like to add a fact about former and coming legislative leadership in NC.
The past Democratic leaders of the NC House and Senate — who have held back bad legislation and somehow found legislative majorities for small positive changes — have been native North Carolinians.
The incoming Republican leaders of the NC House and Senate are NOT native North Carolinians.  
Further, one of those Republican leaders has had a divorce, then had his second marriage in Massachusetts (and somehow his second Massachusetts-based marriage has withstood gay marriage happening there).

Someone is wasted!Uhh…  Connecticut is #14? Where the hell is Vermont?
North Carolina and Virginia are ranked as better than either of those?
What drugs were the people on who did this ranking?
Florida is right behind Connecticut?
And New York is even lower than Louisiana?
I’ve been in every one of those states. Seriously, someone do a drug test on who ever did this ‘study’.  
Cause they is as high as the space shuttle!

The rankings lack a category for gender identity or expression anti-discrimination lawsHow is it that I seem to be the first person commenting on the lack of inclusion of a category for state-wide gender identity or expression anti-discrimination laws?

I must have missed it the first time…Ah, now that I look at the article again, it seems that a category is there, after all! Silly me…

ClarificationOn page 1 of the article, it lists the gender identity anti-dicrimination criterium under hate crimes, but on page 2, where they break down anti-discrimination laws protecting employment in the private sector and housing, it is suspiciously absent. That’s why I missed it the first time.

Obviously not a list for LGBT toleranceKeep in mind, the Daily Beast is not an LGBT-centric site.  This list purports to reflect tolerance in general, not just tolerance on LGBT issues – although they do have a “gay rights” score and support of same-sex marriage.
Still, this list is bogus, by any standards.
Every year, Money magazine publishes a list of best places to live.  They adjust the criteria every year, so of course the list turns out different every year.
It’s all pretty meaningless, except that it drums up interest in the website (or magazine, as the case may be).

A lot of states had the “no out of state forbidden marriages” lawVirginia’s law served as the basis for Loving v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court eliminated anti-miscegenation laws as violations of the 14th Amendment. Massachussetts recently overturned a variation, which prohibited out-of-state couples from getting married if the marriage would be illegal in their home state.
As I recall, states can no longer criminalize actions that take place in a state where such actions are legal: such laws are unconstitutional. Utah could not, for example, make it a crime for Utah citizens to gamble, drink and hire prostitutes while in Nevada. So while this Wisconsin law is still on the books, it is entirely unenforceable. Rather like the bigotry enshrined in Alabama’s state constitution, which prohibited interracial marriages (Section 102) until 2000, and still mandates segregated schools (Section 256.)

SighWhy is Wisconsin so high? Probably because 40/100 points are attributed to the proportion of hate crimes/100K people. That is fine, except that those states with fewer GLBTs are going to do much better proportionately than those with higher populations of GLBTs. Because of this, you have Washington state, THE ONLY state to defend gay rights when put to a state wide vote, and has active civil unions, is ranked 24th. Texas, which is about two steps from establishing gay camps to “re-educate” the population about gender roles, is ranked 29th.
The problem in this report lies in that correlation does not imply causation. High numbers of reported crimes doesn’t mean more crimes are committed. The use of this proportion in the ranking system drastically skews the numbers incorrectly towards states with fewer numbers of gays. Anyone want to re-score the results minus incidents of hate crime and discrimination complains statistics?

Looks to me, just looking at some of the rankings, the kicker iswhere they decide a state with a lot of discrimination or hate crime filings/reports=less tolerant. Virginia scored low for both of these, but we don’t have an LGBT hate crimes law, and frankly, most folks around here are not going to try and file a discriminatio case. We are “right to work”, meaning that if I want to fire you because you wear pink, I legally have that right. Now if I want to avoid paying unemployment, I just need to do so before you qualify, or make a pretty paper trail…easy enough to do in most cases. I had problems with being verbally given instructions and then getting in trouble for following them, of course the manager in question “never said that”. I transfered out of one job where the rules according to the franchise said X, the health department/serve safe/company rules said X+Y, and my manager told me to do Z. Gee, either I can be fired for failure to follow instructions or for failure to follow procedure. I got out. Just give the employee you want to discriminate against impossible and conflicting instructions, document the one they couldn’t follow, fire them and you are going to win. Simple. I’m too lazy to look at what the list would be if you either reversed those rankings (ie-more cases meaning more awareness and chance of redress) or dropped them, but I’ll bet the list makes more sense then.

I’d love to see a head count

Further, one of those Republican leaders has had a divorce, then had his second marriage in Massachusetts (and somehow his second Massachusetts-based marriage has withstood gay marriage happening there).

I’d love to see a head count of divorces for all of the GOP members of the GA. For that matter, any member, Dem or Repub. that supports an amendment and has been divorced.

Uppity? Or not?I agree that the hate crimes and discrimination filings skew things – they assume an even playing field.
If the person against whom the hate crime or discrimination is likely to happen has to live in fear, be in the closet, hide their religious affiliation, stay in certain neighborhoods or near large cities, and (as has been mentioned) they can’t successfully file a complaint if something happens, then the numbers are going to skew low.
And at least as significant (the comment about “keep driving” in NC when you see the Stars and Bars), if the culture is such that it is made manifestly clear that “your kind isn’t welcome here” and people of whatever applicable minority stay away, thats going to limit the population both of those who might be overtly discriminated against AND the number of such claims.
Not that high hate crimes or discrimination filings is a good thing, but a robust and passionate addressing of such issues is going to raise the filing numbers.
There needs to be at least some sort of cross reference and normalizing between the number of reported crimes and incidents and the protections that are in place.
You can’t file a sexual orientation discrimination case in a state with no protections, for example.

Wisconsin Number One For Tolerance?One of the states where trans people got cut out GL rights legislation and the never came back for us?
how much cannabis was The Daily Beast smoking when they came up with this list?

Remember that this listis not a measure of “LGBT tolerance” solely but all different kinds of tolerance.
Here’s Illinois

Tolerance score: 74 out of 100
Hate crime score: 30 out of 40
Discrimination score: 31 out of 40
Gay rights score: 5 out of 10
Religious Tolerance Score: 8 out of 10
Hate crime incidents per 100,000 residents: 1.5 (16 out of 50 states)
Discrimination cases filed per 100,000 residents: 14.5 (24 out of 50 states)
Population in support of same-sex marriage: 48%
Population that believes many religions lead to eternal life: 74%

I think this sounds aboutr right for Illinois.

A few years agoa gay bar in Somerset county, about an hour east of Pittsburgh, was repeatedly picketed by religious fanatics led by a Mennonite “bishop” named Ron McRae.  The protests kept escalating.  The bar and its parking lot were fired on with rifles, and there were even multiple fire-bombing incidents (thankfully no one was hurt).   The police, both local and state, never did a thing–not even a token investigation much less any indictments.  Their public statements didn’t amount to much more than, “Well, what do queers expect?”  The bar finally had to close.
Other gay bars in rural PA have likewise been driven out of business (though not usually by such extreme action). During my years with (the sadly defunct) Planet Q, we covered story after story.   The classic description of our state still holds true: two cities separated by Alabama. Ranking Pennsylvania as a “tolerant” state is in the nature of a bad joke.  

About right I guess?

Illinois RankTo put Illinois third in this list is wrong.  Illinois is a conservative state outside of the Chicago Area counties and a few,a very few,  urban areas down sate.  True, we do not have a constitutional  amendment banning same sex marriage, we do have a law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.  Like our President,  our governor opposes gay marriage, but supports civil unions , a separate but equal scheme in my opinion.  
Who ever created this listing needs  to go back and redo it.  

I disagreeWhat you state about Illinois demographics is true (Illinois ain’t all about Chicago, folks) but remember that this list wasn’t all about LGBTs either; there seems to be entirely too much navel gazing about LGBTs here.
Illinois is also the only state that has elected not one but two black American US Senators in the past 20 years, for example.

VERMONT!!!Vermont didn’t even make the list! Bogus.

Fail.Just a complete and epic fall-on-your-face fail.