# Movement Advancement Project (MAP) Founded in **2006** in Denver, Colorado, MAP is an **independent research and policy organization** that produces the most-cited quantitative-and-policy-analysis resources used by the broader LGBTQ-rights movement and its allies. MAP does not litigate, lobby, or organize directly — it produces the **data infrastructure** that other organizations use for litigation, lobbying, and organizing. ## Core Products - **The LGBTQ Policy Tally** — the canonical state-by-state ranking of LGBTQ-affecting laws and policies across categories (relationship recognition, employment, housing, education, healthcare, religious exemptions, criminal justice, etc.). The Tally is updated continuously and is the most-cited source in legal briefs, journalism, and academic work on the state-level LGBTQ-rights landscape - **Equality Maps** — interactive state-by-state visualizations covering ~40 LGBTQ-policy domains. The maps are the primary public-facing reference resource for tracking the post-2022 anti-trans legislative wave - **Policy reports** — long-form quantitative reports on specific policy areas (anti-transgender legislation tracker, religious-exemption laws, LGBTQ-elder issues, rural LGBTQ communities, etc.) - **Strategy support** — research and analysis services for LGBTQ-movement organizations developing campaign strategy ## Why MAP Matters Most American LGBTQ-rights organizations are mission-specific — Lambda Legal does litigation, HRC does lobbying, GLAAD does media, [[Trevor Project]] does mental-health services. MAP fills the **cross-cutting research and data infrastructure role** that allows the other organizations to operate from a shared factual basis. The Equality Maps in particular have become reference resources that journalists, legislators, academics, and litigators routinely cite. Post-2022, MAP's anti-LGBTQ-legislation tracker has been the **primary public source for the running count** of anti-LGBTQ state bills introduced and enacted — the data point that "over 600 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in 2024" almost always traces to MAP's compilation. ## Place in the Vault MAP is the **infrastructural-research backbone** of the contemporary LGBTQ-rights movement — the equivalent of what the [[Brennan Center]] provides for voting rights or what the Sentencing Project provides for criminal-justice reform. Its work is largely invisible in the political-discourse foreground but is the data layer that everything else in the movement runs on. --- ## See Also - [[Queer Liberation Ecosystem]] - [[Queer Liberation Timeline]] - [[Lambda Legal]] - [[Human Rights Campaign]]