(Note: I’ve received some great feedback that I should remove the analogy of the Green Book to a potential need for a future guidebook/spreadsheet to help LGBTQIA community and women avoid homophobic or misogynistic establishments or service providers. My critic is absolutely correct that despite the common religious tie-in, our current issues cannot be compared to the completely pervasive discrimination the black community suffered during Jim Crow, that it is not my story to tell and that people will not be familiar with this part of American history. All true. However, I personally find learning history to be a transformative experience, equally uplifting and horrifying, so I’m running it and letting you work your way through it with me.)

Does everyone recognize this? This is the 1940 cover of the “Green-Book“, a guidebook  that was published between 1936 and 1966 by New York City mailman Victor Hugo Green, to help black Americans find food, gas and lodging as they traveled through a hostile countryside that could legally refuse them such services.

Why? Because the Supreme Court in 1883 struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, stating that, while the Equal Protection Clause prevented the government from discriminating against black citizens, it couldn’t prohibit such actions from private individuals and organizations.

OK, why are we talking about this now? Because one of the fundamental causes of this shameful period of American history, religious zealotry, has hitched itself to our current administration and is now targeting women’s rights and our LGBTQIA community, with the goal of making discrimination against these Americans completely legal, based on the personal religious or moral objections of others. Continue reading “Thursday 1/18 – We’re going to need a new guidebook if we don’t fight back.” →