DALLAS - A Dallas woman invited three sex offenders to her house for a tea party, with the hope of starting an honest conversation, reports CBS DFW.

"We have to talk about this in polite society, and what's more polite than tea?" asks Judy Safern.

Safern also invited friends and neighbors over for the gathering and had plenty of them RSVP with an adamant NO!

"There were people upset and appalled by the fact that I was doing this," she told the station.

Some of them couldn't stomach the idea of sitting down with sex offenders, she says.

"I did have people say, 'how dare you invite me?,"' she told the station.

Others reportedly told her they couldn't believe she was creating a forum to bring "honor to perpetrators."

But Safern sees things differently.

"They're not these terrible scary predators. They're people like we are. They're just like we are. They do look like us. They do have families and sit down and have dinner," she says.

Josh Gravens, a registered sex offender, agrees with Safern and says the perception people have of those on the sex offender registry "is wrong."

Gravens must register because of a crime he committed at the age of 13. He now works as an advocate for the roughly 85,000 Texans on the registry, reports the station.

"The stark reality is the only conversation we have about registrants is, 'Oh my gosh, they're down the road. Oh my gosh, they're here to get my children,'" he says.

Over tea, people were encouraged to ask questions. Safern hopes it starts an honest conversation.