Welcome to the Lavender Book!

During the first Jim Crow era in the United States (we are currently living at the dawn of the second Jim Crow era), Victor Green, a postal clerk in Harlem published a special travel guide for Black tourists traveling through the American South, called the Green Book. This volume, updated annually, was a comprehensive listing of businesses and hotels that "would accept African-American customers", and included locations of "sundown towns" where people of color had to leave before darkness fell. This book was a valuable travel aid for Black people in a time where discrimination and hatred were practiced as a matter of law and custom in the states of the former Confederacy. Later, Green expanded the Green Book to incorporate a booking service that connected Black travelers with hotels that would lodge them. Publication of this guide ended in the mid-1960s as the Civil Rights movement became widespread.

Fast Forward To 2016 As more and more states (in the South and elsewhere) enact laws or introduce legislation permitting discrimination and restrictions against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, reviving Jim Crow practices and policies, I have decided to create this blog, The Lavender Book, to provide a listing of LGBT-friendly businesses, houses of worship, and hotels or motels, for LGBT travelers going to, or through, states where "New Jim Crow" laws are in effect, or about to be passed. As of April 8, 2016, the states of North Carolina, Indiana, and Mississippi have all enacted harsh anti-LGBT laws permitting people and businesses to refuse goods, services or care to LGBT people, based on vaguely-defined "religious beliefs". Numerous other states, including Kansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee, have similar legislation pending. North Carolina and Mississippi also expressly prohibit transgender individuals from using restroom or locker facilities consistent with their gender identity. These people must only use such facilities that "match the gender on their birth certificate", according to the statutes. The Lavender Book will be regularly updated with the names and locations of LGBT-friendly businesses and hotels, plus a listing of states where anti-LGBT laws are in effect. I invite you to make use of the Lavender Book for your LGBT-safe travel needs, and please do send me your suggestions for inclusion in the roster of LGBT friendly businesses and places to visit at nathanjames95@gmail.com!