Throughout this month focused on LGBTQ+ rights and marriage equality, I’ll probably mention Costa Rica’s Diverse Chamber of Commerce more than once. After all, the entity is one of the leading voices in the ongoing push to make Costa Rica a safer and more accepting place for all sexual orientations. But today, on this Travel Thursday, I want to point out a great resource on their website: the Diverse Directory.
While the site doesn’t appear to be translated (hey folks, want some help? Call me. For real), the directory is easy enough to sift through regardless, checking out the names of businesses that have committed to the principles of inclusion and respect that the Cámara de Comercio Diverso represents.
With marriage equality on the horizon, efforts like this are sure to grow exponentially. In countries around the world, the good business sense of, you know, treating people equally has made a huge difference in progress towards human rights. In Costa Rica, the growth projections for the LGBTQ+ tourism market are being bandied around with delight; a recent study, for example, estimated that the country has been losing up to 1 percent of GDP because of discrimination based on sexual orientation. I can’t wait to see what the near future holds in store for the Cámara Diversa and its kindred organizations around the country.
I’m a writer in San José, Costa Rica, on a year-long quest to share daily posts on inspiring people, places and ideas from my adopted home as a kind of tonic during a rough time in the world. Sign up (top right of this page) to receive a little dose of inspiration every weekday in your mailbox; tell a friend; check out past posts; and please connect with me on Instagram or Facebook! You can also find me churning out small, square poems on any topic under the sun (here on the site, on Instagram or Twitter).
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