Freemasons Expel Gay Couple, Vote On Ban On Homosexuals

The Grand Lodge of Tennessee is voting on whether to keep its ban on gay members.
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things

 For most of us, the Freemasons conjure up images of secret rituals, George Washington and The Da Vinci Code.

But the centuries old fraternity is still around—and still promulgating homophobia, apparently.

Shortly after Freemasons Mark Henderson and Dennis Clark were married in Somerville, Tennessee, last summer they got a letter from their Grand Lodge, advising them “that we were being brought up on charges for un-Masonic conduct,” Clark told NPR.

 Each state lodge has its own bylaws, and the Grand Lodge of Tennessee bans homosexuals. This week, they’ll vote this week on whether or not to uphold the ban, and they’re facing pressure from other lodges to lift it.

But the states operate independently, so while lodges from D.C., California and elsewhere are severing ties with Tennessee and Georgia, there’s no national board to appeal to.

“We have had gay members of our great fraternity for hundreds of years, many had to hide this and some still do… Like politics, who one loves is not the business of the lodge, what one does in their own bedroom is not the business of the lodge,” read a message posted on a Freemasons Facebook page.

“Our goal is to make good men better and we must judge men by the content of their character, their deeds and actions not on issues that do not harm others.”

 The language and symbols of the Freemasons date back to the Middle Ages, but the actual organization began in England in 1717 and quickly spread across Europe and the Colonies.

The group values “personal study, self-improvement and social betterment along with the Enlightenment ideals of liberty of the individual and right of all persons to worship as they choose.”

So what exactly makes homosexuality incongruous with Freemasonry, anyway?

“As same-sex marriage continues to be accepted, those who don’t accept it will look for new, innovative ways to carve out little realms where they can continue to discriminate,” Chris Sanders of the Tennessee Equality Project told NPR.

Ironically, when word of Clark and Henderson’s expulsion got out, it inspired the Grand Lodge of Georgia to enact a ban on gay members, as well. (We guess bigotry loves company.)

The Freemasons do have a history of discrimination: Women, of course, can’t be members.

A separate branch of Freemasonry was founded in the 1800s by African-American men turned away from segregated lodges because of their race.

And the Grand Lodge of Utah didn’t lift its ban on Mormons until 1984.

It would be an interesting test case for the “religious freedom” laws being proposed nationwide.

The Freemasons are not affiliated with any religion—and are actually opposed by the Roman Catholic Church—but they do require members to believe in a Supreme Being, and most members are Christian.

Could they argue a “deeply held religious belief” that homosexuality is wrong?