Tag Archives: AirBnB

AirBnB Celebrates Pride Month With a Short Documentary About The Travel Challenges LGBT Couples Face (Video)

The ability to travel safely and free of prejudice is something that most heterosexual couples take for granted.

As LGBT couples we face something very different. Wherever we visit or stay, there is a possibility that we could be discriminated against us.

That’s not something that even a service like Airbnb can necessarily end, but with its new short documentary, “Love Is Welcome Here,” as part of the company’s #HostWithPride campaign, they make clear that they’re aware of the issue.

The documentary, created in partnership with Molecule, features several queer and same-sex couples – a cisgender woman and a transgender man, and young and old same-sex couples with different kinds of families – as they talk, first, about their love stories.

It’s always charming to hear people recount the joy they felt when they first held their child, or the exciting adventures they’ve had together, but the film quickly takes a sharp turn toward the dark side of sharing experiences as a queer couple: Namely, that some of those experiences can be scary in ways that have nothing to do with you, and everything to do with how the people around you see you.

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As one woman in the film says,

Planning a honeymoon as a queer couple, we have to be really careful about where we go.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by all of the other couples in the spot – “Some countries are less friendly than others,” “Your ultimate fear is your safety,” “If people knew that I was trans and we were queer, would these people talk to us?”

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While Airbnb’s anti-discrimination policy seeks to address such concerns, the company seems to recognize within the ad that no corporate policy can eradicate bigotry, and instead keeps its eye focused on a better day. It ends with the words

We look forward to a world where all love is welcome.”

And that’s something that everyone should be able to get behind.