Hi all,

THANK YOU everyone for the massive support that you've shown towards this cause. It means a lot to me and the entire LGBTQ community and I have immense gratitude in my heart for you.

I want to share a small victory with you. The Zomato team got in touch with me recently and assured that Zomato fully supports the LGBTQ community. Additionally, they are now working towards adding an "LGBTQ friendly" tag to *restaurants, bars, cafes, pubs, clubs, etc. which do not discriminate their guests based on their gender or sexuality. The tag will help us to easily identify restaurants that will welcome us without any judgements. Hopefully, it will motivate other restaurants too, to tweak their entry policies, once they see the benefits of being open to all. 

Thanks Zomato, for taking the first step. I am sure that you will set a positive example for other companies that follow similar business models.

Having said that, I want to add that creating an LGBTQ friendly tag alone, does not solve the issue at hand. Many restaurants might not opt into it and Zomato will continue to support the growth of these homophobic restaurants by providing them sophisticated growth tools like Table Booking, Food Delivery, Zomato Gold, etc. Therefore, I urge Zomato to take a more substantial stance on this by either:

• Influencing all its restaurant partners positively on being open to the LGBTQ Community OR
• By taking a harsher but the right action of disabling access to tools like Table Booking, Food Delivery, Zomato Gold, etc. to homophobic restaurants, if Zomato truly wants to emerge as a company that fully supports the LGBTQ community.

It might seem like a very difficult ask, but it is not. If you compare the current restaurant industry with what it was 3-4 years ago - few restaurants would deliver food, not all restaurants took table reservations and barely any restaurants had a 1+1 or 2+2 offer on food and drinks (Zomato Gold). But Zomato managed to influence these restaurants through aggressive creative strategies, due to which, almost all restaurants today deliver food, take reservations and the company boasts of thousands of Zomato Gold partners who are comfortable offering 2 drinks at the cost of 1.

Therefore, if Zomato truly has the will to open up all the restaurants in the country to all their users irrespective of their gender and sexuality, they can and they should. So please continue to share this petition with your friends and family and urge them to sign it. With enough support, I am hopeful that Zomato will prioritise its users over its restaurant partners.

If you have any suggestions that can help Zomato, the restaurants and the LGBTQ community, please share them in the comments section of this petition. 

Once again, I thank you for your massive support and request you to continue spreading the word. 

Regards,

Indrajeet

*the term restaurant is used here as an umbrella term which encompasses cafes, pubs, clubs, and all other establishments that are listed on Zomato