I know this is niche and there is a Freemasonry subreddit but they're a little overly keen on the downvote buttons and often patronising, especially when a woman posts so I thought I'd shoot my shot here.
My hubby is a Freemason (UGLE member) and autistic but so is my mum although she has CPTSD as well (HFAF member). Hubby says he's doing fine despite having auditory processing issues and struggling initially with the instructions during LOI. I've met some pleasant members from his lodge some of which also ND. Mum on the other hand felt like she wasn't supported and even felt bullied. I even saw screenshots of other officers from her order being publicly shamed, one of which was known to be ND and clearly struggling.
So this made me wonder how inclusive of ND people Freemasonry really is. Like, what could be the most common struggles and what do lodges do to support their ND brethren. Also, it sounds like there's a difference in the culture in women's orders vs the men's order when it comes to this and I do wonder if I'm imagining it.
Why doesn't your mum join UGLE? There's your answer.
UGLE is men only the same way HFAF is women only.
Indeed. And you are asking about how inclusive an organisation they are; that's their baseline.
well yeah it's the fucking freemasons
Not in the way you're trying to present it. We are not talking about gender inclusivity, we are talking about ND one here. Those are two separate things. And given that you have men, women and transgenders who are Freemasons I am not sure what you're trying to prove here.
I don't know anything about freemasonry so genuinely curious out of ignorance but if they have gendered exclusive groups how do they be inclusive to Transgendered individuals? Especially after the (idiotic) Supreme Court Ruling on excluding Trans individuals from "Women Only" spaces?
So from what I heard, UGLE aren't planning to change their rules with regards to this anytime soon, can't comment on the women as they're quite messy operations-wise and have a long way to go. The way I understand it in UGLE if you were initiated as a man but change into woman you can choose if you want to stay or move to the women's. If you want to join UGLE, then I think you need to identify as a male and your documents need to reflect on that, I think. I know there are trans women in HFAF so I know they accept such.
I think this is overoptimistic. An organisation that only wants a fraction of people and doesn't care about missing out on an entire gender's worth of competence is the sort of organisation that gets some of its kicks from being exclusionary. They will be looking for people to exclude. Give them a reason to exclude you, and they will exclude you. It's a conservative member's club with secret society vibes, not a public utility, campaigning body, or union; they are here to have fun, feel special, and give each other kickbacks, not make the world a fairer place.
I think you're looking at it from a very black and white perspective and missing a few details on how it works. I'm not sure what makes you think it's a conservative members' club when a good amount of them actually aren't conservative. I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't care about missing out on an entire gender's worth of competence" either but they are actively collaborating with the women's orders hence they have the council of Freemasonry. Lodges just happen to be separate because men behave differently when surrounded by men and need their space and vice versa. I'm not sure what you're on about with wanting only fraction of people but if you want to keep your space and culture safe you can't just let every random person in. If you actually know anything on the type of accomodations they do, be my guest. Otherwise, I'm not finding general and mildly inaccurate statements like yours a productive conversation.
Lol
"Men behave differently when surrounded by men and need their space." Well, I believe we might not be seeing eye to eye because we never would have to begin with.
I have no idea what you're trying to prove here but thank you for your two cents.
Not a freemason, but this sounds pretty typical of most of UK society with respect to ND + marginalized characteristic.
Yes, I believe you're right which is ironic given how active their Comms team have been for the last few years in trying to prove how diverse and accommodating they are.
"we want everyone to be able to be themselves"
"Wait - we didn't mean like that!"