ST. CLOUD - The Human Rights Campaign has released their annual report on how cities are doing when it comes to equality issues for members of the gay and lesbian community. Of the eight Minnesota cities in the report St. Cloud ranks sixth.

Kevin Lindsey is the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. He says there are a few areas where St. Cloud is doing well, including in our schools and with the police department.

A number of anti-bullying school policies - a score of 11 out of 16.  They also scored very well concerning law enforcement - 12 out of 22, because of reporting hate crimes to the FBI.

He says one area where St. Cloud scored low is as an employer of gays and lesbians.

I don't have the benefit of the mayor's purview when it comes to the budget to say what could be done there, but that could be an opportunity for the mayor and others to take a look at providing health care benefits on a broader basis.

Lindsey says St. Cloud also scored low because we don't have a city-led Human Rights Commission. He says that's misleading because we do have a Human Rights office here in St. Cloud, but because it's funded by the state the HRC didn't recognize the local office.

The HRC gave St. Cloud a score of 59 out of a possible 100. Minneapolis and St. Paul both got a perfect 100 score. Duluth ranked #3 with a score of 66.

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