The Movement Advancement Project has released a new report, Mapping transgender equality in the United States.

MAP found that 31 states have low or negative ratings for protecting transgender rights.

In most places, transgender people lack even the most basic protections – in employment, in housing, in accessing an identity document, to being protected at school. The list goes on.

--Naomi Goldberg, MAP

To help make sense of the current policy landscape in the states for LGBT people, and transgender people specifically, Mapping Transgender Equality in the United States looks at legal equality for transgender people across the country. The gender identity tally is comprised of 25 state laws and policies in the five key categories of Non-Discrimination, LGBT Youth Laws and Policies, Health and Safety, Ability for Transgender People to Correct the Name and Gender Marker on Identity Documents, and Adoption and Parenting.

Twenty-three states have negative ratings for gender-identity protections. They are North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Ratings for sexual orientation protections were low in 22 states and negative in none.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia were ranked as having high nondiscrimination equality.

MAP calculates that 39% of the LGBT population live in states with high gender identity equality rankings, while 9% live in states with medium gender identity equality rankings. Meanwhile sixteen percent of the LGBT population live in states with low rankings and 35% live in states with negative rankings.

Nine states received negative ratings on LGBT youth laws and policies: Arizona, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.

Twenty-six states scored negative on health and safety laws and policies (this includes hate crimes laws and insurance nondiscrimination laws), while ten states and the District of Columbia had high ratings.

But no state is perfect. While New York is one of the highest ranked states...

Currently, New York state does not have an explicit protection for transgender people who are looking to adopt, and there are no explicit protections for gender identity in credit and lending.

--Goldberg