Atlanta contains 685 LGBT-friendly businesses, which is the highest number in the country and three times more than the next highest city. Once again, Georgia’s capital is living up to its nickname: “The City Too Busy to Hate.”

The Gayborhood app was developed in Atlanta and is the nation’s most comprehensive resource guide of businesses that have identified as LGBTQ-friendly.

Gayborhood is an app created by Carma Productions, Inc and is led by Marci A. Alt, CEO and Thomas Ryan-Lawrence, COO. Currently covering 45 markets across the US, it is designed for locals and travelers alike. According to Thomas, their goal is to, “help our community support the businesses that support us by offering products and services free from discrimination.”

Unfortunately, “even in 2015, the fear of being discriminated against based on sexual orientation is a very real concern for a large portion of the LGBTQ community,” he asserts. Gayborhood hopes to alleviate those concerns by providing users, “with a list of LGBTQ-friendly businesses, not only in the parts of town that are well-known for being gay-friendly (like Midtown), but also in the outlying areas further away from the center of the city,” says Ryan-Lawrence.

Carma Productions has strong roots in the city. “In 1989, Marci moved to Atlanta from Los Angeles to open a branch office of her LGBT dating Service. Once in Atlanta, her car was stolen. When she went to purchase a new car, she walked in holding her girlfriend’s hand and some sales associates refused to help her. This is where she came up with the idea for The Gay Community Yellow Pages, which eventually led to the birth of Gayborhood” recounts Ryan-Lawrence. The app evolved from the success of The Gay Community Yellow Pages as they wanted to make a similar impact in digital media. He stresses, “Atlanta has always been our home and will always continue to be our home.”

Although there are competitors offering a similar service, “they focus on much more narrow scope of businesses. Our competitive advantage in the marketplace is that no matter what our users are seeking, whether it a restaurant, hotel, attorney, or plumber, we have over 1500 business categories listed in our database,” boasts Ryan-Lawrence. Gayborhood is available for free on their website or for download on the App Store and Google Play.

Screenshots of the Gayborhood App

Follow Gayborhood on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gayborhoodapp

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gbhapp

Instagram: http://instagram.com/gbhapp/

[Photo Credit: June 23, 1991- The 20th annual Gay Pride March. It became known as the ‘Miracle of Peachtree’ where several midtown churches actively supported the marchers as they made their way along the route to Piedmont Park.]