New York is among the 20 states in the country that has some of the strongest protections for the LGBTQ communities in the country, according to the Human Rights Campaign and the Equality Federation Institute.

The organizations classified New York's laws as "working towards innovative equality" and ranked the state alongside large Democratic-dominated states like California, Illinois and New Jersey.

But the distinction comes as the battle over LGBTQ measures has shifted in the country to other statehouses in the years since New York approved measures legalizing same-sex marriage and legal protections for transgender people.

The ninth annual ranking assessing state laws placed 23 states in need of achieving "basic equality."

“The 2022 State Equality Index outlines how states across the country fought back against yet another record year of anti-LGBTQ legislative attacks. In the face of these attacks, legislators and advocates fought back, with fewer than 10% of the anti-LGBTQ discriminatory bills introduced passing into law,” Human Rights Campaign Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs JoDee Winterhof said. “These bills are terrible public policy, and we are also deeply cognizant of how every harmful anti-LGBTQ bill that is signed into law has a devastating impact on the lives and well-being of LGBTQ people, particularly children."