CANADIAN ELK CANADIAN ELK ´ELAN CANADIEN - Elks of Canada

ELKDOM’S GREAT DEBATETOILET SEATUPEvery man and woman has had the discussion. Seatup or seat down?? It is the one subject that has andcontinues to cause hard feelings (even animosity) overand over and over again.She says…blah, blah, blah. He says….blah, blah, blah.We have heard it all from both sides. Some people getso excited about the issue they can’t leave it alone orsee it as something in which they are able to compromise.Some consider it gender harassment and asource of discrimination in their minds.Well it is a lot of things, but it is definitely NOT discriminationwhen you are talking about toilet seats. It is justone of those circumstances of life that will never beironed out because men are from Mars and women arefrom Venus. Most people just learn to live with it andget on with life.So what does this have to do with Elkdom? Surely inthis great Order we are not actively debating this battlehymn of the sexes.Of course we aren’t. It was just my corny idea of howto get you started reading this article. Hopefully itworked because I want to talk about a serious debatethat in some Lodges very much resembles the toiletseat conundrum.At the risk of being accused of stirring the potty, I wantto address the issue of whether there are some Lodgesor some members who risk harming the integrity ofElkdom by practicing gender discrimination within theOrder.First a little history.In 1997 every member of the Elks of Canada wereTOILET SEATDOWNgiven the opportunity to vote in a referendum on openingthe rights of membership in the Elks of Canada towomen. While not every member chose to exercise theright to vote, of those that did, 70% voted in favour ofthis change.That decision by the membership opened the doors tofull membership rights and privileges to any femaleperson accepted for membership by a local Lodge.This move, fully supported by the Grand Executive ofthe day, either shortly followed or came shortly beforethe same change in direction taken by RotaryInternational, Lions International, the US Elks, theEagles, the Kinsmen, the Kiwanis, and many other fraternalorganizations around the world.The decision was made not because there is anythingwrong in strictly men’s or women’s organizations butbecause it was recognized that it was not only menthat had a strong sense of community, a desire toserve, and a desire to belong and participate as equalsin community endeavours. Women as well held theElks ideals of making life sweeter, people better andthe world happier.With the decision of the Elks Membership to extend fullrights and privileges of membership to women, whomake up 50% of our population, there was an immediateopportunity to enhance not only our membershipnumbers but most important the services we provide inall areas of this great country.Unfortunately, we continue to see pockets of resistanceby certain Elks members and certain Lodges to openmembership in their Lodges to females. Even more disturbingwe have been made aware of instances inwhich members and Lodges treat female members ofother Lodges differently than male members of thesesame other Lodges.9