LGBTQ: INCLUSION IS THE KEY

Embracing the fact that it costs nothing to let people be who they are.

- RUPALI DEAN

If you glance at the kitchen in a hotel, that’s characteristically a very male, leading zone. It’s dissimilar than if you’re employed at the front office. There are nevertheless places where being LGTBQ isn’t as comfortable as it should be, which is to say: it shouldn’t ever be a problem at all.  So, what should be done for the community to be more allencompassing? It’s an imperative question. The first step is to make everyone feel like they are welcome to enter the hospitality industry in the first place.

Bhutan recently sent its first delegate Tashi Choden to the Miss Universe 2022 pageant, held in New Orleans, US, on January 14, 2023, where India’s Harnaaz Sandhu crowns her inheritor. Gorgeous, opinionated, intellectual, poised and a proud member of the LGBTQ community, Tashi is exhilarated to represent her country at one of the world’s leading global beauty pageants. She sees this as an occasion to learn from her colleague representatives and most prominently to exemplify Bhutan on an international stage. Born to a Bhutanese mother and a Tibetan father, Tashi was raised in Nagaland, India until the age of three. As an industry, the world of hospitality needs to be more open on vocation pages; and not just say something broad like ‘we welcome diversity’, but truly state that ‘we welcome all from the LGBTQ community’. It’s a minor, humble change, but just by calling out precisely, it shows that the company actually means it, and that the community will be secure in that company.