Online directory launched for LGBTQ+ inclusive businesses
Online directory Queerys has been launched to link the LGBTQ+ community with inclusive services and venues across the UK.
Businesses from all sectors and industries, including hospitality, can list their services on the directory to show potential customers they are welcoming and LGBTQ+ friendly and are added to the directory's map.
The listing also provides filters that can be used to refine searches for gender neutral or trans-friendly businesses, for example. The aim is to help everyone feel comfortable and secure in the services they are using, no matter how they define themselves.
Queerys is also providing business owners with an optional course on how to be more inclusive and how they can better support the community. Businesses that take the course will be certified and given a green tick visible to users.
The platform has been founded by Jodie Kear, who was inspired by her own experiences in the LGBTQ+ community. Through seeing comments and requests on different social media groups from people looking for inclusive business recommendations, she realised there was both a need and demand for such a platform and launched the directory while juggling her job as a London ambulance dispatcher.
Kear said: "I believe Queerys will be most valuable to the transgender community and non-binary people. The public are still struggling to get behind pronouns and the fact there are more than two genders and I hope the platform can encourage people who are not in the community to think about how they can provide a safe space and service and be actively supportive.
"Homophobia is very much alive and was very much present on a sponsored ad Queerys launched on social media. This just encouraged me more to push forward with the directory."
Photo: Shutterstock / Alena Veasey
