Our Story

Like many of you, our family loves the time we spend together travelling and our family particularly loves to be anywhere near the ocean. If we can’t travel to the ocean, then the mountains are always our second choice. One particular summer our family decided upon a trip where we could experience both: New England.

We had never travelled to this area of America as a family, and we were looking forward to experiencing Maine’s rugged Atlantic coastline with its famous lighthouses along with the green mountains of Vermont and its colorful covered bridges. Like so many families today, we researched and planned our destinations and accommodations for this trip ourselves using information we found on the Internet.

For our days in Vermont, we researched bed & breakfast accommodations online. We found a picture-perfect location in the mountains and decided to book it. Several days prior to our arrival, my spouse called the Owners to confirm our reservation and spoke to a woman who was genuinely friendly over the phone. After the conversation, I asked him whether he thought we should have mentioned to the Owner that we are a family headed by a same-sex couple. I reminded him that we would not be comfortable booking rooms for a family like ours at a privately-owned accommodation in many areas of the United States. My spouse reminded me that we were traveling to a region of the U.S. far more progressive than our home state and there was no need to worry. Still, I wondered if it would have been better if he had mentioned that “detail” up front just to ensure there wouldn’t be a problem when we arrived and met the Owners. I really wished that there could be some way to have this assurance before booking the lodging.

We arrived to our Vermont “Swiss chalet” home for the next three days and viewing it from the outside, we were not disappointed with our choice. Our two teenaged kids grabbed their backpacks and headed for the front door while my spouse and I unloaded the trunk. As he and I walked toward the front door, we saw the Owner (a male) was already walking toward us from the house. The five of us stood there facing each other as my spouse introduced ourselves stating that we had a reservation for the next two nights. The Owner offered us no welcoming greeting, handshake or smile and only asked, “Where are the wives?” Our two teenagers turned to face us and my spouse responded with, “It is just us four.” There was a long uncomfortable pause. Then, with no smile or welcome, the Owner turned around and walked into the house as we followed behind.

Inside, the Owner pointed to an open book and asked us to sign in and then took us up to our room. Upon entering the room he asked, “Will you all be staying in the room?” Confused by his question, my spouse simply responded that, yes, we were. Avoiding all eye contact with us, he mumbled something and left us to unpack.

The four of us just stood looking at each other sort of shell-shocked, then our son asked, “What was that all about?”

Our daughter said, “I really thought he was going to tell us that we couldn’t stay here.”

The next morning while serving breakfast, the Owner and his wife (my spouse recognized the woman’s kind voice as the woman he had spoken to on the phone when making our reservation) were greeting and socializing with the other guests. Both she and her husband seemed to avoid our table. When we requested something she would respond politely but there was a distinct difference with how she interacted with the other tables of guests. She and her husband made us feel ignored and unimportant. Later that day I told my family that I really wished that there were some way to know whether privately-owned accommodations are welcoming to families like ours. If there were, it would save everyone the uncomfortable and humiliating encounters that we had just experienced.

The topic of our disheartening and upsetting experience at that otherwise picture-perfect Vermont bed & breakfast came up often in the car during that trip while traveling the scenic byways of New England. And our family continued to talk about the experience long after so much of that summer vacation had been forgotten. What could we as a family do to keep it from happening to us in the future? Is there something that could be done to keep it from happening to others?

And if we are all honest, humiliating experiences of discrimination don’t only happen to families like ours and these occurrences don’t just happen at bed & breakfast accommodations in Vermont. Discrimination towards minorities of every color, race, culture and religion occurs in every community and in every state. Wouldn’t it be great to know that a business is committed to an open marketplace and to a business environment that is free from discrimination before you make that beach house reservation, before you walk into that bakery, and before you meet that wedding photographer? Wouldn’t it be helpful for you as a consumer to be able to quickly identify the values of a business before you decide to share your paycheck with them? Now you can, and this is why we decided to start Liberty Locator. Where you see the Liberty Locator symbol, you know that all people (no matter our differences) are valued there and you know that you are supporting a business that supports a marketplace that is free from discrimination.

Joel Boyd
CEO, Liberty Locator