SF joins ‘Open to All’ campaign to promote inclusivity

San Francisco became one of the first cities to join a national campaign that promotes inclusivity at all businesses in The City.

Mayor London Breed and city officials joined the “Open to All” campaign to encourage businesses to take the pledge that say their business is open to everybody no matter a person’s race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or religion.

A number of companies, including Gap, Lyft and Yelp have already taken the pledge, plus dozens of LGBTQ community groups.

Breed said on Tuesday at Harvey Milk Plaza that despite the nation’s past of discriminating against minorities, one would think a campaign like Open to All would not be needed in 2019:

“You would think in 2019 that anyone would be able to go anyplace that is a public business and be able to get just a basic service that they request.”

The Open to All campaign was launched by the nonprofit Movement Advancement Project to focus on the U.S. Supreme Court case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

A bakery owner in Colorado refused to bake a cake for a gay couple who were celebrating their marriage. The owner said he could not bake the cake because of his religious beliefs.

Breed said:

“Here in San Francisco, we know that we won’t tolerate that kind of behavior in anyone who owns a business. If you’re business is open and available and you’re a public business, then you’re either open to all or you should find another city to do business in because we won’t tolerate that here in San Francisco.”

Clair Farely, the mayor’s senior advisor on transgender initiatives, said it was important for The City stand by it values of being open to all and calls for other cities to take the pledge.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution by Supervisor Rafael Mandelman declaring San Francisco open to all. Mandelman said:

“By becoming the first city to join the nation Open to All campaign, we can send a strong message that hate will not be tolerated here.”

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.