Dear all,
Earlier this week, Zomato launched the "LGBTQIA friendly" tag for restaurants that allow entry to LGBTQIA persons. The tag is now live in 6 cities (Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad & Pune) and will be soon rolled out to other cities in India.
Zomato assured that their team will actively engage with restaurateurs to help sensitize them about their entry policies and also educate them about the significance of having an “LGBTQIA Friendly” tag on their Zomato pages.
I am happy that they have heard our plea and acted on it.
There are a few aspects that are unclear which we would like Zomato to address:
- Will Zomato continue their partnership with restaurants if they continue to deny us entry after education and sensitization by their team?
- What action will Zomato take if despite of being tagged as LBTQIA-friendly, a restaurant denies us entry?
- Will Zomato run campaigns to publicize this launch so that all users and restaurant partners are made aware of the new tag and its meaning?
- The blog mentions that if a restaurant is not tagged as LBTQIA-friendly then it does not necessarily mean that it is discriminatory. This is confusing and hampers the purpose of the tag: Making it easy to identify non discriminatory restaurants. Could you please ensure that all LGBTQIA-friendly restaurants are correctly marked and only the discriminatory ones are left without the tag?
I have also expressed interest to meet the Zomato team personally and discuss the above points in person so that we can drive a meaningful positive change faster and understand each others' challenges better.
Once again, thanks Zomato and thank YOU for supporting this campaign. Please continue to encourage your friends to sign it.
If you are a Hindi reader, you can read about this campaign and its outcome in this Navbharat Times article.
Regards,
Indrajeet