The Lexington Herald-Leader is reporting that the Grand Lodge of Kebtucky F&AM has suspended an openly gay member, following a trial held April 8th. W:.B:. John Wright, Past Master of Right Angle Lodge No. 233 in Winchester, Kentucky, was found guilty on several counts of un-Masonic conduct, and was suspended indefinitely in a letter sent April 11th.Five Masons from Central Kentucky (and not from his own lodge) brought charges against Wright, saying he violated the Grand Lodge constitution by forsaking his belief in God in declaring his homosexuality, deserting his wife, and by going public with private Masonic information. When Wright became a Mason in 2007, he was married—he and his wife filed for divorce in March 2010 because he realized he was gay. According to the charges, Wright's behavior ran afoul of the Grand Lodge constitution because he "violated the sanctity of his marriage" and "deserted her due to his homosexuality," and that he may have violated his oath and obligation by engaging in other relationships prior to the finalization of his divorce.
The charges also alleged that Wright had violated the constitution because he had "openly forsaken his belief in God . . . by refusing to obey the Moral Laws in declaring his homosexuality which the Moral law declares as an abomination to the law of God." This charge was dismissed by the trial commission, but he was found guilty of all other charges.
In October 2010, assembled members of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky at their annual communication voted against legislation that would have banned openly gay men from joining Kentucky lodges.
Some have accused Wright of self-aggrandizement and using the issue to get his name in the papers, and he says on his website that he is a "LGBT activist", and describes himself as a "troublemaker." He went to the local paper when the anti-gay legislation was defeated at Grand Lodge last year. I suspect many Kentucky Masons didn't appreciate the issue being splashed across the media, especially when they had decisively voted the measure down—they handily defeated the proposal, yet got negative publicity over it anyway. That may have been the initial genesis of the charge of making making private Masonic business public.
UPDATE:
Overwhelming reports are that the principal charge that got him booted was going public with private Masonic information, and in particular, private communications that he took to the press, which included voice recordings from inside the tyled Grand Lodge annual communication. That's cause for suspension or expulsion in pretty much any Masonic jurisdiction. The homosexual aspects have been played up in the papers, largely through Wright's showboating and self-promotion. Were there Kentucky brethren who tried to make the gay issue central to the charges? Yes. But those were not the primary issues for the trial commission, apparently. Reports indicate that his sexuality came up only once in the proceedings, and it was Wright himself who attempted to introduce it.
Such mundanity does not make for compelling headlines.
The GL of Kentucky's defeat of anti-gay legislation last year is the real barometer of this issue in that state, not this Brother's case.
