I like dealing in facts, and the claim that the US is in a golden age just isn’t accurate. I don’t mean to suggest that I hate living in the United States, because thankfully I live in a blue state, and Washington State has a decent rank for how we treat LGBTQ+. However, two things can be true: I still don’t want to give up on my country, and I can say emphatically that we can do much better. I looked up where the United States ranks across a number of different areas, and here is what I found, both good and bad news (honestly, mostly bad).

On gender equality, based on what is called the GGGI, or Global Gender Gap Index, the US ranks 43rd in 2026. That’s a shit ton of countries that rank higher than the US… embarrassing. Here are a few surprising countries that rank higher than us: Rwanda for f%$k’s sake, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Slovenia, Serbia, Philippines, Namibia…and of course so many more from those countries, you know, that our dear leader thinks of as shithole countries.
For LGBTQ acceptance, we rank 23rd; honestly, I thought we might be much lower, but you know who ranked higher than the US, which was surprising: Nepal and Puerto Rica. If you look at the LGBT Equality Index, we are 37th, behind countries like South Africa, Cuba, Colombia, Czechia, just to name a few.
As for our Racial Equity rank, the US ranked 45th. So many countries beat us out here…no big surprise. Of course, many were those shit hole countries, but there were also lily-white countries who ranked higher, like Sweden, Canada, Denmark, Austria, Germany, and even South Africa with all their former issues with apartheid.
Now let’s talk about health, and specifically infant mortality, because you know the right has so much respect for families and cares so much about babies… well, we rank 54th in 2024 out of 195 countries; who knows where we rank now! It was hard to find current data on overall health and our healthcare system because the data covered so many different things, but we were never in the top ten.
How about corruption? We didn’t do so great here, either, ranking 44th in 2025. Wanna bet we’re a lot higher now?
One list where we ranked in the top ten was one of the most powerful countries. We were #2. Want to take a guess who was #1… drumroll…China! The power rank considers several factors, including military might, economic strength, and cultural influence. We were #1 before Trump took office.
Let’s look at some economics. We rank 109th out of 176 countries in unemployment rate; we rank 85th. We rank last among the G7 and 13th among the G20. So…how are we in a golden age again?
One area where we’re right there with most other countries is that we’ve never had a woman lead our country. I suppose we’re in the majority because, out of 193 countries, 113 have never had a woman as their leader. It’s sad that only 80 have had a woman lead their country, but even sadder that the US is one of them.
Now…just for a little fun (although I am really not happy about this because I am a cat person). Dogs are ranked #1, Cats #2, and freshwater fish #3 in the US as preference for pets (in the US).

These rankings are inconvenient truths about the US that prove that Trump’s claim that we are the hottest country and everyone wants to be us is categorically false. Fortunately, we can improve. Sure, we have a lot of work to do, but I just do not believe the current administration will get us there. We will continue to lose standing in the world if we don’t wake the f%$k up and do something…VOTE, VOTE, VOTE. I don’t care if every poll says there will be a blue wave; I don’t believe it until the votes are actually counted. Vote so it is too hard for the right to play every dirty trick in the book to try to deny the voices of the people. While you’re all stressing over the upcoming midterms…take the time to check out my books and take a mental break! Please check out The Kitten Trap, which is only on sale until the end of this month, and Blind Faith, where I had the audacity to combine close proximity, unusual disability, mob activity, forbidden love, protective detail, and an OnlyFans creator bestie in one story!