The city of Tempe was honored with a special award for its 10 years of perfect Municipal Equality Index scores on Nov. 21 by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. 

The Washington D.C.-based group also chose to reveal the 2024 Municipal Equality Index in Tempe with members of the Tempe City Council, Tempe’s Human Relations Commission and other city leadership, a city release explained. 

Every year, the Municipal Equality Index is updated with new cities and new policy information, with the goal of providing a comprehensive look at how cities and towns across the country are advancing the fight for LGBTQ+ equality.

The 2024 MEI shows a record-breaking 130 cities scoring the highest possible marks on the index–increasing the national average score, according to the release.

Tempe was the first city in Arizona to include an anti-discrimination ordinance in its city charter in 2014. The ordinance now incorporates the Crown Act and source of income protections.

Mayor Corey Woods said at the meeting that Tempe took a stand before it was popular and before it was commonly thought of as the right thing to do, knowing then and now that equality is for everyone.

“In Tempe, your hair, your sexual orientation, your pronouns and where your rent money comes from is your business and our ordinance says that you cannot be discriminated against for any of that,” Woods said.

Jennifer Adams, Tempe’s first gay city council member said at the meeting that before being a council member, she was a city employee, and she remembers the passing of the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance as a proud day.

“I felt valued. And now, as a council member, it is my privilege to ensure that we continue and enhance the protections it offers,” Adams said.

HRC President Kelley Robinson also said at the press conference that it “feels like equality” any time she’s in Tempe, as the city proves how local government can be both bulwarks against discrimination and laboratories for inclusion.

“The MEI isn’t about perfect scores, it’s about the hard work that goes into it, the hard work that is done in challenging places to make equality real,” Robinson said.

Additionally, Brick Road Coffee owner Gabe Hagen, whose business provides an LGBTQ+ and sober-community-friendly space in Tempe, spoke at the event about how Tempe has become a beacon of progress in Arizona and across the country.

“Together, we are proving that building a community isn’t about partisanship, it’s about people,” Hagen said. “And when we center our wellbeing of people, we can build a brighter, more just future for everyone.”