Talk:Loyal Order of Moose

Community reassessment

Loyal Order of Moose

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • Most recent review

Result: Delist Nuetrality concerns. Not so sure that the tag bombing is necessary, but they also need to be addressed before renomination AIRcorn (talk) 01:50, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

This article does not give sufficient weight to the Moose Lodge's history of racial and gender discrimination. A search of Google scholar and Newspapers.com shows that reliable sources give great weight to the discrimination issue, but this is barely reflected in the article. Until the discrimation section is substantially expanded, the article fails the WP:NPOV requirements in WP:GACR#4 — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 19:52, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

‘Sex discrimination’ is not an issue here. This is a men’s club. What needs expanding is the info on their racial policies. The intro states that they gave up segregation in the 1980’s but there is no citing of any source for this. The last mention of race issues is the Supreme Court upholding their right to do it. More needed. 2A00:23C3:E284:900:6976:E4A:B105:6F61 (talk) 22:25, 15 March 2020 (UTC)

As of 2021 it is no longer just a mens club. Sparks19923 (talk) 15:41, 13 May 2026 (UTC)

I was the GA reviewer. The relevant GA criteria is "Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each." This criteria is about bias, not that the article is 100% complete in covering all appropriate areas. Similar to my comment in the review...another area for expansion would be coverage of what happens at their facilities and activities. But again, did not see areas that could use expansion as a reason to deny GA. Sincerely, North8000 (talk) 11:06, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

The article heavily relies on connected sources. Until we can remove the {{thirdparty}} cleanup tag, we should remove good article status. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 21:38, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

The main issue with the article is the inclusion of a long list of notable members. This should be deleted or spun off into List of Loyal Order of Moose members. buidhe (formerly Catrìona) 06:12, 4 January 2019 (UTC)

• I would agree that the article needs to discuss the organization's history of racial discrimination in more detail. The google scholar search throws up a number of results, enough that WP:DUE requires more than a discussion of one incident. This isn't a concern so much about length, as about substance; what's already in the article could be pruned. Neutrality is a core policy, and a failure to meet it is a criterion to remove GA status; but such a removal need not be immediate. If the nominator, or anyone else, is willing to address this concern while the reassessment remains open, there's no reason to assume that the article needs to be delisted. Vanamonde (talk) 13:39, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

I did a search and didn't find much. It appears that they just followed the evolution of US society.....discrimination that faded out as the civil rights act took hold. One notable instance of an exclusion in 1972 that was covered in the article and another instance in 1994 where they made no claim to exclude or be able to exclude based on race, but where such was suspected. North8000 (talk) 15:42, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

Discrimination

The Moose Organization is open to every person regardless of race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or gender. Moose Organizations do not discriminate against anyone who is of good character. Applicants must have a sponsor. 2600:1702:4870:7CD0:823C:C7BA:746F:6505 (talk) 00:04, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Changes needed here (and possibly relate pages) for change to Unified Moose

Please see https://www.mooseintl.org/one-moose-a-reality/ and related pages. Naraht (talk) 14:31, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Yes, the article will need a major overhaul due to One Moose change in 2020. I will try to find non-Moose RS's.

Also, the fraternity history of racial discrimination is given entirely too much weight in this article. At the very least, that section should be moved dowm. I'll see what I can do. Not trying to erase or downplay anything, but thatbis not what Moose is about. ~2026-14549-9 (talk) 04:56, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

May 2026 rewrite

I have published a substantial rewrite of the article in May 2026, aimed at addressing the issues that led to its delisting at the 2018 Good article reassessment and at the open threads above.

Summary of changes now live in the article:

• Lead: rewritten as four paragraphs covering (1) the organization and its history with James J. Davis, (2) its principal charitable institutions (Mooseheart and Moosehaven), (3) the 2021 "One Moose" restructuring that addressed the open thread on Unified Moose, and (4) the civil-rights litigation history. The civil-rights material no longer sits at the top or center of gravity of the article.
• Structure: the body is now organized as History (Founding / Davis / Mooseheart / Moosehaven / Women of the Moose and One Moose), Organization (Structure / Membership / Governance and finances), Programs and institutions (Mooseheart / Moosehaven / Community service / Benefits and philanthropy), Rituals, symbols and degrees (with the Gustin–Kenny incident as a subsection), Civil-rights controversies and litigation, Religious objections, Notable members (sortable table), and Historiography and sources.
• Sourcing: 36 unique references, all CS1-clean. The source mix is now ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Form 990 data), Library of Congress finding aid for James J. Davis, U.S. Department of Labor, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Supreme Court via Justia and Cornell LII, Time, Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois), the Holy See for Humanum genus, and academic histories by Schmidt, Whalen, Mangum, Skocpol et al., Clawson, Carnes and Beito.
• ENGVAR: added {{Use American English}} and {{Use mdy dates}}.
• Infobox: replaced the deprecated |membership_year= with the documented |num_members_year=; added |abbreviation=, |founding_location= (Louisville, Kentucky), and |num_members_year=; updated revenue, expenses and net assets to the fiscal year ending April 2025 per ProPublica.
• Open threads addressed:
  • Discrimination (January 2023): the article now reports the Moose International diversity statement directly and frames the Supreme Lodge bylaw history in its historical context rather than as a present-day claim.
  • Changes needed for Unified Moose (April 2023 / January 2026): the One Moose restructuring is now covered in its own subsection ("Women of the Moose and One Moose"), citing Moose International's own restructuring documents, and the civil-rights material has been moved into a dedicated, single-section treatment further down the article instead of dominating early sections.
• Images: added two public-domain 1926 Library of Congress photographs from Category:Moose International on Commons - a Moose Parade photograph in the "Expansion under James J. Davis" subsection and a Mooseheart campus photograph in the "Mooseheart" subsection. Also added {{Commons category|Moose International}} in External links and {{Authority control}}.
• Wikilinks: added context links such as Puddling (metallurgy), K. Leroy Irvis, Theda Skocpol, ProPublica, David T. Beito, Birmingham, Alabama, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Wales, Time, Kirkus Reviews, Daily Herald, Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Humanum genus and the medical-research and scouting wikilinks supporting the new Benefits and philanthropy subsection. All 53 wikilinks resolve.

I have also bumped the article-quality rating from C-class to B-class, on the view that the rewrite now meets the five B-class criteria: suitably referenced, reasonably comprehensive, defined structure, free of major style errors, and supported by See also / Further reading / Authority control. A renomination at WP:GAN would be the next logical step. Sparks19923 (talk) 16:04, 13 May 2026 (UTC)