Shame on you Sherrie Holmes

I moved back to my hometown a couple years back and I have honestly not gotten out as much as I would like. I really don't know a lot of folks outside of family here as I moved away 22 years ago, so someone clued me in to meetup.com.

I joined and started going out with the Louisville Hiking Club and have enjoyed all those experiences. The hikes introduced me to some of the local trails and it has been a fun experience that I don't get to enjoy as often as I'd like.

Someone mentioned another group to me where the focus was social events for people over 40.

Sherrie Holmes is the moderator of the group and it turns out it has a lot of overlap with the hiking group. On Sunday, I received the following email from Sherrie. This is cut and pasted verbatim.

From: "Sherrie Holmes"
To: Socializers-announce@meetup.com
Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2012 12:23:38 PM
Subject: [Socializers] Gay and Lesbian members......

It is with great apology that I send this email. I am aware that hurt feelings will result in it. Again I apologize in advance. This is not easy for me.

It has been brought to my attention that we have had a few Gay and/or Lesbian's join our group lately. I feel strongly, as do others for keeping this group a Heterosexual group. I don't personally have anything against Gays or Lesbians. I just don't want to send out the wrong message out as to what sort of group we are.

An example of possible issues to come....... We have a group of us women that just dance. We dance with each other. This is done in fun. Personally I have a very difficult time spotting a Lesbian, so I would be the first to dance with one unknowingly. Yes this can be in fun, but it can also send out the wrong message to the other person. This is what I want to prevent before it happens.

With this in mind and other issues, I am asking the one's of you that are Gay/Lesbian to leave the group. I am so sorry. Please know I wish all of you well. I know there are groups out there almost identical to ours that are designed for Gay/Lesbian members. I hope you can find and enjoy these groups.

Again, I cannot apologize enough.

Sherrie Holmes

These were the list of events that I had received invites to before quitting after less than a month:

A bus trip to Keenland
Celebration of St. Patrick's Day at Porter's
A bike ride at the Louisville Rowing Club
Visit Volare (it might be a bar, I don't know)
Dinner at Senor Iguanas
NCAA tournament bracket
A game watch for the Louisville Cardinals basketball game
A wine tasting
Creation of a league softball team
Meetup at Drake's (a bar in St. Matthews)
Bowling
Plans for a Derby party

I guess I don't get why they would change their charter to exclude a group of people for what is described purely as a social group other than fear or hatred. These are all very normal events as far as I can tell.

I guess my time in Ohio has given me a more worldly life experience as I currently have one good friend I know of that is gay and another friend who passed away three years ago from cancer.

Doug was a terrific guy and genuinely the nicest person out of our circle of friends in college. He also was always able to get all the pretty girls to come to the keg parties. :)

And I have been to a lot of Springsteen shows over the years with Chris and spent countless hours on the road driving to those shows. He's also one of the nicest, friendliest people I have ever met.

My purpose here is to call the group out publically and bring attention to this ridiculous situation. Unfortunately I can only call out the moderator Sherrie, as I have no idea who in the group objected.

I know there were a couple others who also objected as I did because I saw their posts on the discussion board before I quit the group.

At the very least, a couple dozen folks who read my blog will know of the group's actions.