Yelp, the User Reviews and Recommendations company for popular destinations, has rolled out a new business feature that helps people find gender-neutral bathrooms as an assistance to the LGBTQQIA community. This is the response of the company when a trans student filed a lawsuit against his school for denying him use of the boys' restroom.
Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Rachel Williams, wrote on Yelp's blog, saying, "At Yelp we thrive on inclusion and acceptance, and we hope that our support for Gavin's case and the addition of this new business attribute will help our friends in the LGBTQQIA community."
Williams also shared to ABC News that the feature will roll out in the next few weeks and will see to integrate a social issue on its app. The idea for the feature came from the employees in the company's product section who were angry that there was no significant effort to put a voice to transgender people's civil rights.
The report also shared that Yelp is among 53 companies in the country filing a friend-of-the-court with the Supreme Court in response to Gavin Grimm in a case against his school board in Virginia. Grimm wanted to use the boys' bathroom because it matches his chosen gender. However, the board has prohibited him and now has the community and school divided on the case.
Together with Yelp, big-time companies like Airbnb, Apple, eBay, IBM, Microsoft, PayPal, Tumblr, and Williams-Sonoma joined the cause to hold transgender people's civil rights. Religious leaders, major medical associations, civil rights organizations, and teachers' unions have expressed support as well.
The oral arguments for Grimm's case will start on March 28, while the school is reportedly seeking to delay the trial. Meantime, Yelp will collect information from businesses and users on where establishments do offer restrooms that are gender neutral.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
