State bills advancing LGBTQ rights outpaced those seeking to thwart them in 2018, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ advocacy group.

“The last several years, we have been facing an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation in the states,” Cathryn Oakley, the report’s co-author and HRC’s state legislative director, told NBC News, adding that 2018’s tally represented a “huge change” from previous years.

In addition to keeping a tally of LGBTQ-related state bills, HRC’s State Equality Index also assigns each state an LGBTQ-equality grade.

“We had a record number of states who scored in our top category,” Oakley said. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia received the highest designation: Working Toward Innovative Equality. On the other end of the spectrum, 28 states received the lowest designation: High Priority to Achieve Basic Equality.

The rankings were based on an analysis of existing LGBTQ-related legislation in each state.

“The strength of the state-based LGBTQ movement is critical to elevate our representation, visibility and equality across the country,” according to Rebecca Isaacs, executive director of Equality Federation Institute, an LGBTQ advocacy organization that partnered with HRC to produce the report.. “As we look to the next legislative session, the State Equality Index should serve as a recognition of how far we have come and how much we have yet to achieve.” Read more via NBC