Popular business reviewing app Yelp is moving to tackle discrimination, joining the new Open To All coalition, which is encouraging businesses to publicly declare that they don't discriminate.
“Every day, consumers face varied degrees of discrimination,” Yelp Senior VP of Public Policy Luther Lowe said in a statement.
He continued: “Beyond the LGBTQ community, this also unfortunately exists for many minority communities in our country, and we are equipping consumers with the information they need to confidently patronise any place of business.”
So far around 1200 businesses including Yelp, Lyft and AirBNB have shown their support of the inclusive initiative.
In order to sign on, each business must commit to maintaining "a welcoming and safe environment for people—including employees, visitors, customers, vendors and clients—regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religion or disability."
Businesses must also commit to not discriminating "against any individuals or deny them goods or services based on any of these characteristics, and to provide all goods and services to everyone on the same terms."
Calla Rongerude, Open To All’s campaign manager, said that "no one should have to worry that they will be denied service."
She added: “No one should be turned away from a business simply because of who they are.”
Part of Yelp's contribution to the coalition involves offering other businesses the chance to check an 'open to all' box on their Yelp profiles - allowing visitors to actively seek inclusive restaurants and cafés.
