Urban & Regional Brown Bag - Nicole Elias

LGBTQ+ issues in local governance pose some of the most pressing civil rights challenges in the current U.S. context. This analysis provides insight into what is taking place in major municipalities and how these efforts can be improved to bolster equity for LGBTQ+ populations. At a time when identity, language, and public sector values are inherently intertwined and constantly changing, the following question is ripe for analysis: how are major U.S. municipalities addressing the civil rights needs of the LGBTQ+ population? To answer this question, an analysis of government websites from the top ten U.S. cities by population is conducted, examining the policies, programs, and services municipalities offer LGBTQ+ constituents and the language used to frame these policies, programs, and services as expressions of power, representations of identity, and the website presentation, itself. The goal of this research is to produce a rich, qualitative analysis of public-facing web content to inform future research and practice.