Yelp lets stores pledge 'Open to All' as part of antidiscrimination push
On Yelp pages, businesses can distinguish themselves as safe places that welcome all people.
Now you can check Yelp to see if a business welcomes all people.
The reviews site is partnering with the Movement Advancement Project to promote awareness of nondiscrimination laws and defend "the bedrock principle that when businesses open their doors to the public, they should be Open to All," Yelp said in a blog post.
A business can sign up at opentoall.com and pledge to be a safe place that welcomes everyone. Then Yelp's mobile app will show "Open to All: Yes" under the business info on a company's Yelp page.
Yelp itself is just one of more than 1,200 businesses to have joined the broader Open to All campaign, according to the Open to All website, along with Lyft , Airbnb, Levi Strauss and Thumbtack. Many human rights activist groups, such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, have also partnered with MAP on this campaign.
"Every day, consumers face varied degrees of discrimination," Yelp's senior vice president of public policy, Luther Lowe, wrote in the blog post. "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 patronize any place of business."
The initiative was prompted by the recent ruling in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, reported The New York Times.
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