The Democracy Maps create a detailed roadmap of state election laws and policies and how they differ. The Democracy Maps dive deep into more than 40 aspects of state election and voting laws, making it easy to see the states that are ensuring democracy thrives and the states that are falling short. Policies tracked include: automatic voter registration, early in-person voting, state primary systems, voting machine security, ballot drop boxes, and congressional redistricting.
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Unequal treatment under the law can prevent LGBT Americans from being able to fully participate in American life. LGBT employees have no explicit federal protections from workplace discrimination in more than half of the states. While other states have worked to advance laws allowing workers to take paid leave from work to care for a child, to ban harmful conversion therapy practices on youth, and other protections.
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Founded in 2006, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) is an independent, nonprofit think tank that provides rigorous research, insight and communications that help speed equality and opportunity for all.
MAP works to ensure that all people have a fair chance to pursue health and happiness, earn a living, take care of the ones they love, be safe in their communities, and participate in civic life. MAP is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and donations to MAP are 100% tax-deductible. You can read more about MAP and the work we do on our About page.
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The term “sexual orientation” is loosely defined as a person’s pattern of romantic or sexual attraction to people of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or more than one sex or gender. Laws that explicitly mention sexual orientation primarily protect or harm lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. That said, transgender people who are lesbian, gay or bisexual can be affected by laws that explicitly mention sexual orientation.
“Gender identity” is a person’s deeply-felt inner sense of being male, female, or something else or in-between. “Gender expression” refers to a person’s characteristics and behaviors such as appearance, dress, mannerisms and speech patterns that can be described as masculine, feminine, or something else. Gender identity and expression are independent of sexual orientation, and transgender people may identify as heterosexual, lesbian, gay or bisexual. Laws that explicitly mention “gender identity” or “gender identity and expression” primarily protect or harm transgender people. These laws also can apply to people who are not transgender, but whose sense of gender or manner of dress does not adhere to gender stereotypes.
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