The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses has been preoccupied with homosexuality for decades going all the back to Nathan Knorr's presidency if not before. Knorr used to conduct midnight raids in Bethel with the aim of finding Bethelites in flagrante delicto. Those found in "compromising positions" were summarily disfellowshipped and dismissed from Bethel. But despite these raids outing some, Knorr's efforts to stamp out the small gay community at Bethel ultimately failed. There is still a gay cell in Brooklyn as well as at Wallkill. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that there is a third one at Patterson.
Leo Greenlees was a Governing Body member who was a homosexual. When this was discovered, he was dismissed from both the Brooklyn headquarters and the Governing Body. But he was not disfellowshipped. Instead, he was assigned to the circuit work in the New Orleans area, a post he held for some time. I don't know when and where Greenlees finally died, but I do know that his sexual orientation was kept secret. I can only wonder what clandestine affairs he had at world headquarters and how he was finally outed. Someone else may have that information.
There have been doubtless many others in the upper echelons of the WTS who were or are gay men. Having been a gay Witness myself, I know the self-loathing and internalized homophobia these men are feeling. There are some who maintain that Knorr himself was a gay man and this was the reason for his own denunciations of homosexuality. His marriage has been characterized as being devoid of the normal passion one would expect. Suspicion has also been cast on Fred Franz who was a lifelong bachelor and never evinced any interest in women. But lack of interest in women does not mean a man is gay, either.
The point I wish to make is that gay men have been or currently are present at every level of the organization. For the most part they have remained deeply closeted, but that does not mean that their sexual identities aren't known to a select few. Many of these men have entered into marriages that can hardly be characterized as happy or fulfilling. But they have done so for the oldest reason in the world: avoiding being outed and suffering embarrassment and disgrace. Others have opted for celibacy, a choice that leads to frustration and depression. Despite this, these men believe they are better off and will maintain their present course.
Now the Governing Body knows all this and I am sure they fear and loathe the gay men at headquarters and in the organization at large. Are some of them gay men themselves? That is entirely possible and that may well account for their frequent and vehement denunciations of LGBT people and their way of life and love. The organization's history has a gay component which its leaders do not want to admit or acknowledge. So the strategy will be to denounce as frequently as possible and to deny everything at all times. But despite these efforts, I do not believe they will succeed in keeping this secret. The Internet has been the key to opening a Pandora's box full of woes for the organization. That box is not yet empty. More and more of its contents are getting out and finding people who want to share them with others. In the ancient myth of Pandora's box, after all its evils had been released into the world, one occupant remained. That was Hope, hope that eventually all the evils would be overcome. In the WTS situation, Hope does not remain. The troubles being loosed upon the organization will not be resolved, but will ultimately destroy it. That may not happen in my lifetime, but I am convinced that it is inevitable.
Quendi
