Yelp is making it easier than ever to filter out businesses from your repertoire that are not inclusive of everyone. The new feature, which was created as part of a partnership with Open To All, lets users find and select businesses and restaurants based on whether or not they’re inclusive. The feature, which launched last month, is helping thousands of shoppers and restaurant visitors make sure that they’re supporting businesses that welcome anyone—regardless of things like skin color, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, immigration status, disabilities, or religion.
Discrimination Remains A Major Issue In The United States
It’s no secret that much of the United States is still rife with discrimination against certain people based on things like their gender and sexual identities or race and religion. In many parts of the United States people have experienced discrimination or a refusal of services for things like wedding services at LGBTQ+ weddings. Organizations like Americans United are fighting issues of discrimination to help prevent this from happening on a regular basis.
In 2017 one Denver couple took a local cake shop to court when they were refused service for their wedding cake simply because they were gay. The couple, who were denied services based on their sexuality, won the case against Masterpiece Cake Shop after it was ruled that the cake shop could not use religious freedom as grounds to discriminate against a group of people.
Organizations like Open To All are hoping to guide consumers in their shopping decisions by helping create resources where they can look for places to shop based on the fact that they’re inclusive to begin with. Open To All is a nondiscrimination campaign that aims to help prevent businesses from being able to discriminate on anyone. The organization partners with civil rights and other justice organizations around the country to promote equality across the board in business and consumer services.
Open To All Partners With Yelp
In partnership with Yelp, Open To All is working to end discrimination against consumers by creating a feature within the Yelp app that helps users find businesses that partner with the organization. To use the feature, simply open the Yelp app and click on the “Open To All” filter within the filters option when searching for businesses.
Participating businesses will be able to display their affiliation with Open To All on their websites and within their profiles on Yelp. This will help customers easily distinguish whether or not a business is passionate about making a safe and welcoming environment to all.
