Our partnerships make our work possible. The State LGBT+ Business Climate Index is financially supported by a grant from the Gill Foundation. The Index is based on data graciously shared by the Movement Advancement Project and the Williams Institute. Ropes & Gray is our pro bono legal partner for the CEO Business Briefs globally, and their research informs this Index. FCB partnered with us to conduct original market research into American attitudes toward LGBT+ workplace inclusion, informing the Regional Context section of the State CEO Briefs. America Competes supported the development of the scoring for the Risk Assessments detailed below, particularly for the Future Risk score.

Out Leadership and FCB partnered on original market research into the attitudes of American workers on LGBT+ inclusion, which fielded in March and April 2019. The full results will be launched in September 2019; we are able to share preliminary regional comparisons in this brief.

Only 50.8% of LGBT+ workers in the Midwest are out at work. They are only slightly more comfortable being open with their managers than other regions (14% more likely), but they are the least likely to cover their identity at work (17% less likely than nationwide).  This could be due to the Midwest having the lowest rates for observing microaggressions (23% less likely) and hearing or engaging in negative conversations on average. However, workers in this region do not typically go out of their way to do business with inclusive companies (21% less likely than the nation as a whole).  This is primarily driven by those who live in more rural areas where respondents were 85% less likely to do business with companies that are inclusive.

Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons for more or less likely are compared to the National results.  Regional results are based off of 1,500 respondents (LGBT+ and Non-LGBT+ responses have been weighted to be age-representative for each audience in each region).  National results are based off of 600 respondents representative of each audience (LGBT+ vs Non-LGBT+).

States in the Midwest region included: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin

Legal status of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Community

• – Wisconsin has a relatively comprehensive nondiscrimination law inclusive of sexual orientation but not gender identity in employment, housing, the provision of public accommodations, and foster care.
• – The Wisconsin Fair Employment Law protects state employees and job seekers from discrimination based on sexual orientation but not gender identity by employment agencies, labor unions and licensing agencies.
• – Wisconsin law and regulations prohibit licensed care centers, foster homes, child placing agencies and group homes from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation for youth in the child welfare system.
• – There are no explicit restrictions on same-sex adoption. Under Wisconsin law, individuals may adopt children without respect to sexual orientation or gender identity. Although the language of the adoption statute has not been amended to include same-sex couples, the Wolf decision mandates that same-sex couples enjoy the same rights as opposite-sex couples.
• – Same-sex couples in Wisconsin have been able to file for joint adoption and stepparent adoption.
• – State law does not prohibit agencies from declining adoptive parents due to religious reasons. However, agencies are barred from discriminating against a foster home or foster parent applicant on the basis of sexual orientation (but not gender identity.)
• – Wisconsin mandates birth certificates that accurately list both parents for the children of married same-sex couples.
• – Wisconsin does not have religious freedom restoration legislation, but does have RFRA-like protections provided by state court decisions that broadly interpret the “rights of conscience” provision.
• – Wisconsin’s penal code covers hate crimes based on sexual orientation, but not gender identity.
• – Conversion therapy is currently legal in Wisconsin. However, Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire and Cudahy have passed city ordinances banning conversion therapy on minors.

Legal status of the Transgender Community

• – Individuals may obtain a legal name change in Wisconsin by submitting a petition to the court and publishing a notice of the hearing in a newspaper once a week for three weeks prior to the hearing date. The hearing may be waived for the applicant’s safety. People on the sex offender registry are not allowed to change their legal names.
• – Individuals can change their gender markers on birth certificates upon receipt of a court order to “change the name and sex of the registrant due to a medical procedure.” (Gender confirmation surgery is required).
• – There is no state process for changing a gender marker on a driver’s license or state ID.
• – Wisconsin’s state Medicaid policy specifically excludes transgender healthcare from its coverage. However, in July 2018, a federal judge granted an injunction, stating that the exclusion violates equal protection and the ACA.
• – Insurance companies are not generally barred from excluding transgender care from coverage. However, in September 2018, a federal court ordered the state of Wisconsin and its insurers to include gender confirmation surgery for its employees under coverage. Wisconsin’s Group Insurance Board approved healthcare coverage for gender confirmation surgery for state employees starting on Jan. 1, 2019.

Government statements and actions

• – In 2019, Governor Tony Evers signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity against state employees.
• – In 2012, Senator Tammy Baldwin became the nation’s first openly gay Senator. She continuously fights for equality for the LGBT+ community.