Bourbon Street in New Orleans adorned with Pride flags. (Photo Credit: krblokhin/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus)
New Orleans & Company is partnering with the New Orleans LGBTQ Hospitality Alliance (NOLHA) to re-launch
the 2019 “Everyone’s Welcome Here” campaign.
In doing so, the city's official destination sales and marketing organization is asking
local businesses to take a pledge to actively welcome LGBTQ+ visitors and people of all backgrounds and identities.
Visitors to New Orleans will notice rainbow flag stickers stating "Everyone's Welcome Here" in storefronts of local businesses
throughout the city. Nonetheless, the campaign also includes a training program to help businesses know exactly how to make inclusion a part of their day-to-day business.
"New Orleans has long been known as a place where everyone is welcome
to enjoy our incredible culture, but the ‘Everyone’s Welcome Here’ program makes that clear and provides businesses that join the program with educational support to enhance inclusivity in their day-to-day operations," New Orleans & Company's President
and CEO Walter J. Leger, III said in a statement.
"It’s more than just a sticker, it sends an important message to visitors, whether they be here for leisure, convention customers and those making decisions on where special events will be
held in a competitive marketplace that inclusion is a part of who we are and how we operate. For generations, New Orleans has been celebrated as a welcoming, inclusive destination for all and host to iconic LGBTQ+ events such as Southern Decadence.
Our unique beauty comes not just from our diversity of cultures but also in the blending of those cultures to create something uniquely our own," he added.
"In New Orleans, EVERYONE is welcome and diversity is celebrated. New Orleans has
a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s MEI Scorecard, which measures inclusivity based on factors such as municipal services and LGBTQ leadership. This is not just a temporary campaign during Pride month...inclusion is in our DNA."
The city is opening its arms to people of all backgrounds and identities. (Photo Credit: New Orleans & Company)
Added Dustin Woehrmann, President and Creative Director of Communify, a New Orleans strategic marketing agency, and a volunteer leader of the New Orleans LGBTQ Hospitality Alliance: "According to SAP CONCUR, 97 percent of the LGBTQ+ community are worried
about their safety and discrimination when traveling. We know New Orleans has always been a welcoming city, so our top priority is making sure LGBTQ+ travelers feel safe, respected, supported and free to be themselves. Displaying an ‘Everyone’s Welcome
Here' sticker at your business is doing exactly that."
Mayor LaToya Cantrell went on to call New Orleans "a welcoming city that openly celebrates and embraces diversity, as it is what makes up the beautiful fabric of our great city."
"As
a true ally who has led the charge and been on the frontlines with our community partners and organizations, everyone will always be loved and accepted here in New Orleans, and I will continue to do my part to make New Orleans a place that is more
inclusive, more equitable, and more diverse as a whole."
In addition to Pride Month, the campaign comes just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Up Stairs Lounge arson, which killed 32 people inside a small gay bar at 604 Iberville Street
in New Orleans French Quarter in June 1973. The still unsolved attack was the deadliest crime against LGBTQ+ people in U.S. history until the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando.
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