Last verified: 2026-09-15

Utah

Extreme risk / avoid if possible

Overall: 30/100

Important warning: State law provides weak or hostile protections for transgender people. Gender-affirming healthcare is restricted or materially insecure in this state. State hate-crime, criminal-justice, and enforcement safeguards provide little meaningful protection for transgender people. Trans youth and families face serious state-level restrictions.

U.S. federal warning: Important U.S. federal warning: Even the strongest state protections cannot fully shield trans people from hostile federal laws, enforcement, funding decisions, data demands, travel restrictions, or court rulings. Treat a high state score as a relative U.S. option—not a guarantee of safety—and verify current federal and state conditions before moving.

Summary

Lower costs cannot offset hostile laws, care restrictions, and severe safety concerns.

Category assessment

Legal protections

25/100

MAP records 7% of its gender-identity policy benchmark and 31% of its identity-document benchmark. HRC gives housing and public-accommodation protections full credit and no credit.

Affirming-care access and security

22/100

MAP records 38% of its affirming-care policy benchmark; HRC gives the state no credit for transgender healthcare protection. This does not measure provider wait times or travel distance.

Safety protections and enforcement

5/100

MAP records 0% of its criminal-justice benchmark, while HRC gives hate-crime protections no credit. The score measures safeguards and enforcement policy, not the general crime rate.

Family and youth rights

24/100

MAP records 18% of its youth-policy benchmark and 13% of its relationship and parental-recognition benchmark. HRC’s school and family criteria provide the cross-check.

Affordability

52/100

BEA’s regional price parity is 98.9, where 100 equals the national price level. This captures broad costs; city-level housing can differ sharply.

Workplace and housing protections

90/100

MAP records 100% of its gender-identity employment benchmark and 100% of its housing benchmark here. The state also protects at least some public employees. The nationwide Title VII rule remains a limited employment floor; it does not replace state housing law or reliable local enforcement.

Community support

32/100

MAP estimates 6.1% of adults are LGBT. Community scale is balanced with the wider policy record and HRC criteria; rural access may be much thinner.

Resilience against federal action

31/100

The resilience estimate combines no comprehensive healthcare shield law identified, a R governor, R state control, 78% statewide support for LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections, a 62.46% FY2026 federal Medicaid matching rate, and the state’s broader protection record. Party control is only a proxy; enacted safeguards and official action carry more weight.

How to read this score

This is a relative U.S. relocation baseline. It combines current state law, healthcare, safety, family and youth rights, affordability, work and housing, community conditions, and resistance to hostile federal action. It does not mean a state can override federal law or guarantee anyone’s safety.

State profile sources

Movement Advancement Project — Current state equality profile and policy components.
Human Rights Campaign — Independent state equality criteria cross-check.
Movement Advancement Project — Scoring definitions for state and local employment and housing nondiscrimination coverage.
Supreme Court of the United States — Bostock v. Clayton County establishes the nationwide Title VII employment-discrimination baseline.
UCLA School of Law — Current state shield-law analysis and limits.
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — 2024 state regional price parity used for affordability.
National Conference of State Legislatures — Current governor party and legislative composition used as institutional-support proxies.
Public Religion Research Institute — 2025 state-level support for LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — FY2026 federal Medicaid matching percentages used to estimate federal healthcare funding dependence.