Mystery shoppers to sniff out bigot firms

A new campaign, Give us the Goods, launched by Stonewall aims to name and shame businesses or services that continually fail to meet gay needs.

To do this gay and lesbian people in Wales, their friends and family are asked to become mystery shoppers to identify areas where they are excluded.

Stonewall Cymru want people to test services. It could include reasons why a local video shop does not stock any gay titles or why in some libraries whether the ‘net nanny’ prevents people from accessing gay websites.

Stonewall Cymru director, Dr. Alison Parken said: “LGB people often don’t get the services they need because they won’t tell the police, their doctor, teacher, housing provider, parent or church leader about being lesbian or gay because they anticipate being badly treated.

“Worse, if they do inform people that they are lesbian or gay and need service delivery to take that into account, often the response is: “We don’t need to know that, we treat everyone the same.”

“This isn’t equality. It isn’t recognising LGB service needs and planning to provide services in an accessible or appropriate way. Many service providers and private companies, from banks to the local café will welcome knowing what they can do to improve.”

Responses from the community will be fed-back to companies and will help Stonewall Cymru in its campaign to gain discrimination in the delivery of goods and services.

Contribute to the mystery shopper experiences via the Stonewall Cymru website.

Story taken from The Pink Paper