Virat Kohli’s restaurant chain faces backlash for not allowing 'gay' people. Here's what happened

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'Quite shameful,' claimed netizens after Indian cricketer Virat Kohli landed in controversy regarding the entry of 'gay' people in his restaurant 'One8 commune.' The star cricketer runs a chain of restaurants across Pune, Delhi and Kolkata. Their Zomato listings claim, "Stags are not allowed". This caused an uproar among the netizens who called out Kohli for discrimination. People on social media accused him and said that this is unacceptable. Following the backlash, an LGBTQIA+ activism group called 'Yes, We Exist' asked the restaurant chain to make the 'necessary changes asap'. 

The group wrote on Instagram, "@virat.kohli you are probably not aware of this, but your restaurant @one8.commune in Pune discriminates against LGBTQIA+ guests. The other branches too have a similar policy. This is unexpected and unacceptable. Hope you make necessary changes asap. @deepigoyal @zomato - either do a better job at sensitising restaurants or stop providing your platform to businesses that discriminate"

It added, "Often it’s the high-end restaurants that practise such discriminatory policies; the ones that you most likely get large sums of ad money from. This needs to end."

Reacting to the same, netizens expressed their anger. One Twitter user wrote, "Quite shameful how @imVkohli’s restaurants have been discriminating against LGBTQ+. Truly appalling that @deepigoyal allows such blatant bigotry to deliver food on @zomato. There must be no room for this nonsense." Another tweeted, "It sounds weird. How do they check and confirm you're "gay" or the allowed categories? Do they need bedroom pics, medical records? It sounds like someone picked on the word "stag" and called the restaurant and created a story. Weird."

Check out the reactions here-

Virat Kohli's restaurant chain denied allegations:

The restaurant chain, One8 Commune, denied all the allegations and said their policy has been misinterpreted. It stated that the restriction is on 'stag entry' which means 'individual boys are not allowed.' Taking to its Instagram stories, it said, "At one8 Commune, we believe in welcoming all people irrespective of their gender and/or preferences with utmost respect and honour. As our name denotes, we have always been inclusive in serving all communities since our inception."

It further claimed, "Similar to industry wide practice and in conformity with government rules, we obviously have a prohibition of stag entry. policy (subject to necessary relaxation) in place so as to ensure a safe and enjoyable environment for our guests. That does not in any way. mean that our company policy provides any discriminatory entry rules for/against any particular community"