I started a Red Hat group ten years ago. We only wore the hats on a couple of occasions, but have continued to meet each month. The idea behind a Red Hat group is that ladies get together and do something just for the fun of it. Each woman chooses a month to hostess and she gets to decide what the group will do. My group is running out of good ideas and lately it's been one house party after another. Since I was TBM when I started the group, all but one of the ladies is TBM. The lone hold out is a Presbyterian deacon. As I have gotten more liberal the rest of the group as become more entrenched (get the reference?). I've been wondering how I could reinvigorate this group and get it to feel less like another RS meeting.

Today, while shopping, I ran into one of the members and we started talking about this and that and I mentioned that I don't like it when Utah is in the national news for an embarrassing reason. I was referring to the school lunch debacle. She then brought up the SSM issue and how she hated watching same sex couples getting married. OMG! I knew my old friends were TBM, but I guess it hadn't occurred to me that that meant they were also homophobic. I confessed that I was in favor of marriage equality and stated some of my reasons why. When she explained her reasons for being against marriage equality she somehow (I'm not quite sure how) used creationism as one of her reasons. She obviously considers that cockamamie story in the temple to be literal.

My parting comment was that I wished that the money Utah was spending fighting against SSM could be put to a better use. Perhaps a fund to be used by school children who forgot their lunch money.

I don't think I'm going to have to worry about my Red Hat group anymore. If they don't kick me out, I'm probably going to have to resign.

Maybe I'll start a new group called the Red Hat Heretics.

My favorite red hats were DEVO.

I have to admit, I had to Google it. Now that is a red hat. I'd never heard of the band, but I do remember Whip It.

Probably out of the comfort zone of my current Red Hat group, but the Heretics might embrace them.

I think you can kiss that group good-bye. Mormons are too conformist.

Nuts to them.

I just got a red hat (long story) and I'll sign up!

I thought this thread was about the Linux operating system.

My guess was 50 50 between that and between the color based personality profiles.

My DH saw Red Hat women yesterday at a restaurant and talked to them about what they were doing. Then he looked it up on the internet and shared with me. Until then neither of us had heard of it. I thought it was kinda cool that in rural Utah there were some women doing something fun and a bit crazy like this.

"They are a Fifth Column aimed at the heart of our civilization - the mothers. By associating "red" with "fun" this nefarious commie plot softens America in the place from which it draws its greatest strength - our homes. Any member who freely associates with deviants such as these must truly ask herself if she understands that she is laying the groundwork for invasion by forces of the Satanic. These agents clearly identify themselves by donning the colors of the great international Communist conspiracy. Reject them! Return to church and repent! God loves you and wants you to do what is right!"

Your post would be a lot funnier if a similar argument hadn't been made by husbands, bishops and stake presidents. Some of the women who were invited to join our club were discouraged from joining because Red Hat clubs are just for fun and don't serve any useful purpose.

It is absurd, which can be comical, but I think it really is more tragic than anything else.

I wish you luck with linking with new contacts. You're just a bigger person than your old contacts were.