You Can Find LGBTQ-Owned Restaurants & Bars On Yelp With This New Feature

With Pride Month just around the corner, Yelp is kicking the festivities off a few days early by expanding one of its inclusivity features to LGBTQ business owners. On May 24, the San Francisco-based company rolled out a new business attribute that allows people to identify their businesses as LGBTQ-owned — and the feature makes it so easy for you to shop and eat at LGBTQ-owned spots in your community. Here’s how to find LGBTQ-owned businesses on Yelp so you can be intentional about where you spend your money.

While it’s always important to support local small businesses, Pride Month in June is a great reminder to put your money towards supporting members of the LGBTQ community. According to Yelp’s blog post about the new feature, there has been a steady increase in consumers looking to support LGBTQ-owned businesses over the past year. In fact, searches for LGBTQ-owned businesses on Yelp in the U.S. increased by over 150% in 2021 compared to the same period in April 2020. Yelp’s newest business identity designation lets you shop and browse LGBTQ-owned businesses all year round.

Just like its similar features for Asian-, women-, Black-, and Latinx- owned businesses, LGBTQ-identifying business owners can self-designate their business as such in their Yelp for Business account. Businesses can also designate themselves as “open to all” to signify that they are an LGBTQ-friendly space. According to Yelp, over 581,000 businesses have marked themselves as “Open to All” as of May 24.

During the month of June, Yelp will also showcase LGBTQ-owned or “Open to all” bars, restaurants, and nightlife with rainbow map pins so it’s easy to find these businesses near you to support.

If you want to search LGBTQ-owned businesses in your community, you can go to Yelp’s website or app and type “LGBTQ-owned restaurants” or “LGBTQ-owned businesses” in the search bar. The page will populate with all the different local businesses that have designated themselves with the new identifier. As always when browsing an eatery on Yelp, you can tap the "Start Order" button to order pick-up or delivery, or, if the restaurant opted for Yelp’s reservations portal, you can click on the restaurant’s name and select the "Find a Table" button that's located next to the phone number. You'll then be able to pick a time and date to visit the restaurant or bar. When dining in at any of these businesses, make sure to follow the most up-to-date guidance from the CDC on social distancing and mask-wearing.