Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Encyclopedia
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), also called Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI) in Australia and elsewhere, is a charity, protest, and street performance organization that uses drag
and Catholic imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirize issues of gender and morality. At their inception in 1979, a small group of gay men in San Francisco began wearing the attire of nun
s in visible situations using high camp
to draw attention to social conflicts and problems in the Castro District.
The Sisters have grown throughout the U.S. and are currently organized as an international network of orders, which are mostly non-profit
charity organizations that raise money for AIDS
, LGBT-related causes, and mainstream community service organizations, while promoting safer sex and educating others about the harmful effects of drug use and other risky behaviors
. In San Francisco alone where they continue to be the most active, between 1979 and 2007 the Sisters are credited with raising over $1 million for various causes.
Early members of the group, while not hiding their masculine features or facial hair, are characterized by San Francisco gay community historian Susan Stryker as the embodiment of "genderfuck
". Their appearance has changed over the years; the nun motif remains the same, but it has been joined with garish drag make-up that accentuates the rebellion against gender roles and religion. The Sisters have attracted controversy both within and outside the LGBT communities, but have received the harshest criticism for obvious parodies
of Catholic icon
s and policies.
in San Francisco in 1979. Their approach and appearance was not new or extraordinary for the place or time. Starting in the 1960s, the Castro District began transitioning from a working class Irish Catholic district going through significant economic decline. A gay bar opened on Market Street and gradually, gay men began to migrate to the neighborhood. By 1977, between 100,000 and 200,000 had moved to San Francisco from all over the United States, changing the political and cultural profile of the city. The migration created a gay community in the city with enough political clout to elect a representative to city government, Harvey Milk
.
Two theater troupes, The Cockettes
and the Angels of Light, formed in San Francisco in the late 1960s and focused their entertainment on mocking popular culture through drag
, embracing drugs, and free sex in the counterculture of the 1960s
. The Cockettes performed regularly at the Palace Theater in the city's North Beach district as part of the late-night "Nocturnal Emissions" series and developed a strong following that would also dress in drag and ascribe to recreational drug use at their shows. One of their more high profile performances was staging a parody
performance of the wedding of Tricia Nixon—President Nixon's daughter—and Edward F. Cox
, completely in drag and coinciding with the actual event in 1971. With their rising success came philosophical differences with The Angels of Light who broke off to present free shows, but who similarly employed drag and theater to satirize issues of gender and morality. The Angels of Light first appeared in a mock nativity scene
at Grace Cathedral's Christmas Eve midnight mass in 1970. Director John Waters
called the Cockettes "hippie acid freak drag queens", whose first non-San Francisco appearance was at a New York City show with an audience full of celebrities who reacted with complete confusion to the performance. Both groups employed a sense of high camp
: outrageous scenes and sets, fantastic costumes, movie references and bad puns, and intentionally bad acting combined with deliberately bad drag, which diverted from previous female impersonators whose mark of quality was realism.
The Castro was also known for the outrageous characters who were 1970s mainstays, such as Jesus Christ Satan and The Cosmic Lady, who endeared local residents with their unique perspectives, particularly during street events such as the Castro Street Fair
and Halloween in the Castro
. Jesus Christ Satan was an eccentric in the tradition of Emperor Norton who appeared at parades and street fairs in outrageous costumes and often carried a United Nations flag
.On Easter weekend 1979, three men dressed as nuns with habits they had procured from a convent in Iowa under the guise that they were going to stage a presentation of The Sound of Music
, made their appearance on Castro Street. They followed with appearances at a nude beach, a softball game and the annual Castro Street Fair.
A revival of religious participation in politics appeared in the late 1970s with the activism of Anita Bryant
and Jerry Falwell
's establishment of the Moral Majority
. The Castro District had been publicized nationally as a major gay neighborhood and was targeted by several dozen church members who took weekly trips to preach to the residents about the immorality of homosexuality. In August 1980, a dozen men dressed in 14th century Belgian nun's robes and habits, and according to one participant using the name Sister Missionary Position, "a teensy bit of make-up so as not to be dowdy on a Friday night", met the proselytizers where a chase ensued and attracted an audience of gay supporters who heckled the preachers until they left.
In October 1980, the dozen or so erstwhile nuns held their first fundraiser, a bingo game and Salsa dance that was well-attended in large part because of the write-up in The San Francisco Chronicle by Herb Caen
the same day, who printed their organization name, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The benefit was for San Francisco's Metropolitan Community Church
Cuban Refugee Program, and it netted $1,500 ($ in 2009). The Sisters began making regular appearances at Castro events that focused on sexual tolerance or provided a showcase for drag. They also developed a mission statement:
Members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence include men, women, and transgender
people who identify with a variety of sexual orientation
s, although the majority are gay men. Joining an order mirrors the steps for joining an actual order of nuns. Potential members are encouraged to attend organizational meetings as aspirants, and told that if they are not intending to make a lifelong commitment they should seriously reconsider. After showing intent and being approved by the order, an aspirant is promoted to a postulant
and is expected to learn about the history of the organization and continue to work behind the scenes for at least six months. Postulants are not allowed to wear nun's attire, but may instead dress in "festive garb that fits in with Order", according to the Sisters' website. If the members approve of the postulant, a fully indoctrinated member may act as a sponsor and the postulant is promoted to a novice
. Novices are allowed to wear white veils and whiteface make-up. This phase lasts another six months during which the novice is expected to work within the organization and plan an event. If three-fourths of the order agrees, the novice is promoted to a full member of the group.
After their inception, the Sisters soon spread to other cities within the U.S. as a loosely connected network of mostly autonomous houses. There are thirteen houses and six missions in various cities across the U.S. Globally, 600 members work for established houses or missions in Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Scotland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay. The San Francisco Founding House anchors much of the activities and continues to be the largest and most well-funded. The San Francisco House (SPI, Inc.) also holds the registered trademarks for "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" and the "laughing nun head" logo.
Only in San Francisco could the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence not only make their first appearance, but become interwoven in the cultural and political fabric of the city, according to scholar Cathy Glenn in the journal Theory and Event. Glenn uses the examples of San Francisco as a society of hyperpluralism
, where all the groups who have called the city their home have successfully maintained their individual identities, creating a culture defined by counterculture and at times marked by political violence. The Sisters use Catholic imagery as simultaneous inspiration and fodder for parody through camp. They choose names based on the process of renaming women inducted into Catholic orders, but that suggest sexual promiscuity or that are based in absurdity: Sister Anita Blowjob, Sister GladAss of the Joyous Reserectum, Sister Hellena Handbasket, and Sister Homo Celestial, among others. They wear wimples, habits, and robes of nuns, but accessorize them garishly with baubles, beads, and whiteface make-up. Sister Phyllis Stein the Fragrant Mistress of Sistory asserts that there is a clear distinction between drag queen
s and members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence: "We're not dressed as girls, we're dressed as nuns... We definitely minister to the spiritual needs of our community, while drag queens sort of focus on camp and fun within our communities. We're very different communities. A lot of people refer to us as drag queens, but we say we're in nun drag. We are nuns."
Sister Irma Geddon of the Portland, Oregon-based Order of Benevolent Bliss offered her view of the efficacy of using nun's clothing and drag: "The lightness of everything, in addition to the whiteface and the nun's habits, are a mechanism to reach out to people. When we're dressed up like that, kind of like sacred clowns, it allows people to interact with us."
Bobbi Campbell
) and Sister Roz Erection (also a nurse) joined with a team of Sisters and medical professionals to create "Play Fair!", the first safer sex pamphlet to use plain language, practical advice and humor, and considered by one of the founders to be "one of the Order's greatest achievement in community education and support". In 1999, for the Sisters' 20th anniversary the pamphlet was revised. The Sisters worldwide continue to raise awareness of sexual health; many Orders regularly pass out condoms and participate in events to educate people on sexual health issues.
Campbell appeared on the cover of Newsweek declaring himself to be the "AIDS poster boy" in 1983. He was active in AIDS education and prevention and split his appearances as himself and Sister Florence Nightmare until his death in 1984. He and three other Castro residents started the AIDS Candlelight Memorial. Losing several members to AIDS in the early 1980s, the Sisters' presence at the 1986 Castro Street Fair was accomplished with less than a dozen members who sponsored a fund-raising and safer sex education booth that featured pie throwing with the slogan "Cream yer Sister, not yer lover!"
Members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who have died are referred by the Sisters as "Nuns of the Above". Specific losses due to AIDS are immortalized in the folk art
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
. Created in the early 1990s the quilt has made history several times. It was featured at the 1996 NAMES quilt display in Washington, D.C. in front of the U.S. House of Representatives and was among the first quilts viewed by then Vice President Al Gore
and his wife Tipper Gore
and later featured in the Names Projects' calendar worldwide. The Nuns of The Above quilt itself has been flown around the United States and is in high demand for local displays. While in town for the AIDS Memorial Quilt display the Sisters led an exorcism
of homophobia
, classism
and racism
on the steps of the United States House of Representatives
, and assisted with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) death march and protest, to the gates of the White House
where ashes of people who had died from AIDS were illegally spread on the lawn.
Outlined as one of the Sisters' missions "to promulgate universal joy and to expiate stigmatic guilt", the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have a history of bringing attention to conservative movements that attempt to shame members of the LGBT community or people with HIV/AIDS. Sisters performed a public exorcism
of anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly
that was deliberately timed to take place at Union Square during the 1984 Democratic National Convention
, taking place in San Francisco. A Sister dressed as Schlafly was held down as another spoke to the crowd, and other Sisters pulled out rubber snakes from the mock-Schlafly's clothing. Also taking place was Jerry Falwell
's Family Forum, hosted by the Moral Majority
whose major planks focused on condemning homosexuality, pornography, and abortion. A Sister dressed as Falwell was undressed during the performance to reveal fishnet stockings and a corset in front of an audience of 2,000.
In 1987, their Castro Street Fair presence was a protest of the rhetoric of Lyndon LaRouche
, a California politician who advocated for quarantines for people living with AIDS. The Sisters covered their costumes with "Stop LaRouche" buttons, selling them as they mingled in the crowd to raise money for San Francisco General Hospital
's AIDS ward. The same year the Sisters held another mock exorcism, this time of Pope John Paul II
, coinciding with his visit to San Francisco, calling it the "Official San Francisco Papal Welcoming Committee". The Pope's visit stressed relations between Catholics and gays when Cardinal Ratzinger released an open letter from the Vatican clarifying the Church's position on homosexuality and recent events in San Francisco. The Bay Area Reporter, a local gay weekly newspaper, summarized the intent with their headline, "Pope to Gays: 'Drop Dead' ", and took greatest offense with the Vatican's points that gays cause the violence against them, and that they were primarily responsible for the AIDS crisis. The Sisters claim the action, also taking place in Union Square, earned the organization a spot on the Papal List of Heretics.
Continuing the tradition, members of the San Diego Order have made a presence at a Christian fundamentalist youth revival meeting called Teen Mania Ministries
from 2006 to 2008. Sisters Iona Dubble-Wyde and Freeda Sole stood outside the Cox Arena
in full regalia to intercept pastors and attendees. The responses from the children and adolescents were varied. While some told the Sisters they were going to hell, others asked questions and offered thanks and hugs; the event was generally reported as positive.
became a major city event, described by author David Skal as "gay high holy day", attracting thousands of outsiders. On October 31, 1989, two weeks after San Francisco was devastated by the 6.9 (Richter scale
) Loma Prieta earthquake, the Sisters used donation buckets to collect thousands of dollars for the mayor's Earthquake Relief Fund from the Halloween crowds that poured into the Castro neighborhood for the massive street party.
The next year, the Sisters, with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and group named Community United against Violence, took over organizing the event for the next five years, drawing larger crowds and collecting for AIDS charities. By 1994 between 300,000 and 400,000, people attended the event. Controlling excesses became too difficult. Violence escalated, claimed by Dahn Van Laarz (Sister Dana van Iquity), to be the result of inebriated gawkers motivated by homophobia
. When the police confiscated an AK-47 from a reveler trying to gain access to Castro Street, and they reported that 50 to 60 people had been arrested, the Sisters decided to move the celebration and Halloween in the Castro ended. The next year, the Sisters hosted a costume-mandatory dance named HallowQueen in a South of Market
gay nightclub, which raised over $6,000 for charity.
A decade later the city was still struggling to manage the Halloween event. In 2006 nine people were wounded when a gunman opened fire at the celebration; it was canceled in 2007. The Sisters continued to organize private and safe events, raising money every year for charity. Without city funds they managed to keep the chaos under control by providing entertainment and structure. Their abilities for staging and running large events has kept them in demand as event organizers and advisers.
research, the Gay Games
, Haight Ashbury Free Clinics
, and raising the "first legal $1000" for a city proposition to legalize medical marijuana. Sister Roma
—There's No Place Like Rome! organized a "Stop the Violence" campaign in the Castro where the Sisters distributed placards in homes and businesses to signify which were safe places to go, and whistles to be used to alert those nearby in case of attack. They have sponsored dances for LGBT youth, and given to or worked for a variety of similar objectives.
. Balking at the stage names of Sister Hysterectoria and Boom Boom, an editorial in a local Catholic magazine named the Monitor stated, "The organization, their names, and their use of religious habits is an affront to religious women and Catholics in general".
Starting in 1995, the Sisters began a Castro Crawl on Easter Sunday to celebrate their anniversary. The event features a 13-stop pub crawl
that parodies Stations of the Cross
. At each station in front of a gay bar or similarly affiliated organization, the Sisters call out "We adore thee, O Christ" to be answered by their traveling audience in "Luvya, mean it, let's do brunch". Actors portray the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene
, and other people integral to Easter traditions, and the Sisters continue to educate for safer sex by passing out condoms, ending the event with a toast of vanilla wafers and Jägermeister
.
In 1999, San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano
came into conflict with some in San Francisco's Catholic community when the Board of Supervisors, at Ammiano's request, granted the Sisters a permit to close a block of Castro Street for their 20th anniversary celebration on Easter Sunday, that included a "Hunky Jesus" contest among other activities. San Francisco's archdiocese requested the event be moved to another day. The city's Interfaith Council suggested the following Sunday, which was the Eastern Orthodox
Easter. An Archdiocese newspaper compared the Sisters' event to neo-Nazis
celebrating on the Jewish holiday of Passover
. The controversy sparked a flurry of responses in The San Francisco Chronicles Letters to the Editor. The Anti-Defamation League
wrote to reply that such a characterization was offensive and "trivializes the horrific actions of hate groups" while others reflected offense at the sacrilege of the Sisters' actions, and other writers merely wondered what the fuss was about. The resulting attention ensured a crowd of 5,000 attendees and what the Sisters claimed to be a million dollars of free publicity. In actuality, the event raised about $13,000 for the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center
, among various groups.
In 2001, the Catholic League
for Religious and Civil Rights requested the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have their tax-free non-profit status revoked by the Internal Revenue Service
, claiming that while they perform fundraising and other community activities, they do it in the spirit of anti-Catholicism. Catholic League president William A. Donohue
states, "It is ludicrous on the face of it for the Sisters to maintain that one of the major issues they address is 'the role of religion in daily life.' How? By simulating sodomy while dressed as nuns, using a gas pump as a phallic symbol?" The Catholic League further branded the Sisters an "anti-Catholic group" and called for the boycott of Miller beer
in 2007 for sponsoring the Folsom Street Fair
, an event organized in part by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
The Sisters were featured in a 2008 book titled Catholic and Queer where they explained that their mode of dress was meant not only to employ the "fabulous attire" that had been forsaken by Catholic non-cloistered orders, but that their dedication to community service is an attempt to "honor and emulate [the] unstinting devotion" of actual nuns who work within their neighborhoods.
s at Reno
's first Pride Parade. Nevada's Republican
Governor Kenny Guinn
signed a bill in May outlawing discrimination against gays and lesbians in Nevada so the LGBT community was disappointed when he refused to sign a proclamation in support of the Reno Pride Parade which parade organizers were assured he would and is regularly done for pride events. On June 11, 1999, President Clinton issued a proclamation designating June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month but Governor Guinn refused to issue a Gay Pride Day proclamation for the event largely because of the Sisters' participation, which he feared might offend people of faith. About 6,000 participants attended Reno's Pride celebration although it attracted a few protesters as well.
s hundreds of people who have helped on various projects behind the scenes organizing, coordining actions or projects, performing at events as an artist or emcee or even serving the greater GLBTI community. Rarely but sometimes they canonize
community heroes who have recently died. Some of the more notable saints include:
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
and Catholic imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirize issues of gender and morality. At their inception in 1979, a small group of gay men in San Francisco began wearing the attire of nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
s in visible situations using high camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
to draw attention to social conflicts and problems in the Castro District.
The Sisters have grown throughout the U.S. and are currently organized as an international network of orders, which are mostly non-profit
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
charity organizations that raise money for AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, LGBT-related causes, and mainstream community service organizations, while promoting safer sex and educating others about the harmful effects of drug use and other risky behaviors
Harm reduction
Harm reduction refers to a range of public health policies designed to reduce the harmful consequences associated with recreational drug use and other high risk activities...
. In San Francisco alone where they continue to be the most active, between 1979 and 2007 the Sisters are credited with raising over $1 million for various causes.
Early members of the group, while not hiding their masculine features or facial hair, are characterized by San Francisco gay community historian Susan Stryker as the embodiment of "genderfuck
Genderfuck
Genderfuck refers to the conscious effort to mock or "fuck with" traditional notions of gender identity, gender roles, and gender presentation. It falls under the umbrella of the transgender spectrum.-Genderfucking:...
". Their appearance has changed over the years; the nun motif remains the same, but it has been joined with garish drag make-up that accentuates the rebellion against gender roles and religion. The Sisters have attracted controversy both within and outside the LGBT communities, but have received the harshest criticism for obvious parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Catholic icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
s and policies.
Inception
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence made their first appearance on Castro StreetThe Castro, San Francisco, California
The Castro District, commonly referenced as The Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco, California. The Castro is one of America's first and best-known gay neighborhoods, and it is currently its largest...
in San Francisco in 1979. Their approach and appearance was not new or extraordinary for the place or time. Starting in the 1960s, the Castro District began transitioning from a working class Irish Catholic district going through significant economic decline. A gay bar opened on Market Street and gradually, gay men began to migrate to the neighborhood. By 1977, between 100,000 and 200,000 had moved to San Francisco from all over the United States, changing the political and cultural profile of the city. The migration created a gay community in the city with enough political clout to elect a representative to city government, Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
.
Two theater troupes, The Cockettes
The Cockettes
The Cockettes were a psychedelic drag queen troupe founded by Hibiscus in the late 1960s in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. The troupe performed outrageous parodies of show tunes and gained an underground cult following that led to mainstream exposure.In 1971, over differences in...
and the Angels of Light, formed in San Francisco in the late 1960s and focused their entertainment on mocking popular culture through drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
, embracing drugs, and free sex in the counterculture of the 1960s
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
. The Cockettes performed regularly at the Palace Theater in the city's North Beach district as part of the late-night "Nocturnal Emissions" series and developed a strong following that would also dress in drag and ascribe to recreational drug use at their shows. One of their more high profile performances was staging a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
performance of the wedding of Tricia Nixon—President Nixon's daughter—and Edward F. Cox
Edward F. Cox
Edward Ridley Finch Cox , is the chairman of the New York Republican State Committee and the son-in-law of the late President Richard M. Nixon. Cox is a lawyer in the Manhattan law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP where he has served as the Chairman of the Corporate Department and a...
, completely in drag and coinciding with the actual event in 1971. With their rising success came philosophical differences with The Angels of Light who broke off to present free shows, but who similarly employed drag and theater to satirize issues of gender and morality. The Angels of Light first appeared in a mock nativity scene
Nativity scene
A nativity scene, manger scene, krippe, crèche, or crib, is a depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke...
at Grace Cathedral's Christmas Eve midnight mass in 1970. Director John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
called the Cockettes "hippie acid freak drag queens", whose first non-San Francisco appearance was at a New York City show with an audience full of celebrities who reacted with complete confusion to the performance. Both groups employed a sense of high camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
: outrageous scenes and sets, fantastic costumes, movie references and bad puns, and intentionally bad acting combined with deliberately bad drag, which diverted from previous female impersonators whose mark of quality was realism.
The Castro was also known for the outrageous characters who were 1970s mainstays, such as Jesus Christ Satan and The Cosmic Lady, who endeared local residents with their unique perspectives, particularly during street events such as the Castro Street Fair
Castro Street Fair
The Castro Street Fair is a San Francisco LGBT street festival and fair usually held on the first Sunday in October in the Castro neighborhood, the main gay neighborhood and social center in the city. The fair features multiples stages with live entertainment, DJs, food vendors, community-group...
and Halloween in the Castro
Halloween in the Castro
The Halloween celebration held in The Castro district of San Francisco began in the 1940s as a neighborhood costume contest. By the late 1970s, it had shifted from a children's event to a gay celebration that continued to grow into a massive annual street party until 2006 when a shooting wounded...
. Jesus Christ Satan was an eccentric in the tradition of Emperor Norton who appeared at parades and street fairs in outrageous costumes and often carried a United Nations flag
Flag of the United Nations
The flag of the United Nations was adopted on October 20, 1947, and consists of the official emblem of the United Nations in white on a blue background. The emblem's design is described as:...
.On Easter weekend 1979, three men dressed as nuns with habits they had procured from a convent in Iowa under the guise that they were going to stage a presentation of The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
, made their appearance on Castro Street. They followed with appearances at a nude beach, a softball game and the annual Castro Street Fair.
A revival of religious participation in politics appeared in the late 1970s with the activism of Anita Bryant
Anita Bryant
Anita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and gay rights opponent. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5...
and Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
's establishment of the Moral Majority
Moral Majority
The Moral Majority was a political organization of the United States which had an agenda of evangelical Christian-oriented political lobbying...
. The Castro District had been publicized nationally as a major gay neighborhood and was targeted by several dozen church members who took weekly trips to preach to the residents about the immorality of homosexuality. In August 1980, a dozen men dressed in 14th century Belgian nun's robes and habits, and according to one participant using the name Sister Missionary Position, "a teensy bit of make-up so as not to be dowdy on a Friday night", met the proselytizers where a chase ensued and attracted an audience of gay supporters who heckled the preachers until they left.
In October 1980, the dozen or so erstwhile nuns held their first fundraiser, a bingo game and Salsa dance that was well-attended in large part because of the write-up in The San Francisco Chronicle by Herb Caen
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen was a Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco journalistwhose daily column of local goings-on, social and political happenings,...
the same day, who printed their organization name, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The benefit was for San Francisco's Metropolitan Community Church
Metropolitan Community Church
The Metropolitan Community Church or The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches is an international Protestant Christian denomination...
Cuban Refugee Program, and it netted $1,500 ($ in 2009). The Sisters began making regular appearances at Castro events that focused on sexual tolerance or provided a showcase for drag. They also developed a mission statement:
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a leading-edge Order of queer nuns. Since our first appearance in San Francisco on Easter Sunday, 1979, the Sisters have devoted ourselves to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment. We believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty and we use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.
Structure and methods
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
people who identify with a variety of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
s, although the majority are gay men. Joining an order mirrors the steps for joining an actual order of nuns. Potential members are encouraged to attend organizational meetings as aspirants, and told that if they are not intending to make a lifelong commitment they should seriously reconsider. After showing intent and being approved by the order, an aspirant is promoted to a postulant
Postulant
A postulant was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. The use of the term is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a monastery or a convent, both before actual admission and for the length of time preceding their admission into the novitiate...
and is expected to learn about the history of the organization and continue to work behind the scenes for at least six months. Postulants are not allowed to wear nun's attire, but may instead dress in "festive garb that fits in with Order", according to the Sisters' website. If the members approve of the postulant, a fully indoctrinated member may act as a sponsor and the postulant is promoted to a novice
Novitiate
Novitiate, alt. noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a novice monastic or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether they are called to the religious life....
. Novices are allowed to wear white veils and whiteface make-up. This phase lasts another six months during which the novice is expected to work within the organization and plan an event. If three-fourths of the order agrees, the novice is promoted to a full member of the group.
After their inception, the Sisters soon spread to other cities within the U.S. as a loosely connected network of mostly autonomous houses. There are thirteen houses and six missions in various cities across the U.S. Globally, 600 members work for established houses or missions in Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Scotland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay. The San Francisco Founding House anchors much of the activities and continues to be the largest and most well-funded. The San Francisco House (SPI, Inc.) also holds the registered trademarks for "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" and the "laughing nun head" logo.
Only in San Francisco could the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence not only make their first appearance, but become interwoven in the cultural and political fabric of the city, according to scholar Cathy Glenn in the journal Theory and Event. Glenn uses the examples of San Francisco as a society of hyperpluralism
Cultural pluralism
Cultural pluralism is a term used when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and their values and practices are accepted by the wider culture. Cultural pluralism is often confused with Multiculturalism...
, where all the groups who have called the city their home have successfully maintained their individual identities, creating a culture defined by counterculture and at times marked by political violence. The Sisters use Catholic imagery as simultaneous inspiration and fodder for parody through camp. They choose names based on the process of renaming women inducted into Catholic orders, but that suggest sexual promiscuity or that are based in absurdity: Sister Anita Blowjob, Sister GladAss of the Joyous Reserectum, Sister Hellena Handbasket, and Sister Homo Celestial, among others. They wear wimples, habits, and robes of nuns, but accessorize them garishly with baubles, beads, and whiteface make-up. Sister Phyllis Stein the Fragrant Mistress of Sistory asserts that there is a clear distinction between drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
s and members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence: "We're not dressed as girls, we're dressed as nuns... We definitely minister to the spiritual needs of our community, while drag queens sort of focus on camp and fun within our communities. We're very different communities. A lot of people refer to us as drag queens, but we say we're in nun drag. We are nuns."
Sister Irma Geddon of the Portland, Oregon-based Order of Benevolent Bliss offered her view of the efficacy of using nun's clothing and drag: "The lightness of everything, in addition to the whiteface and the nun's habits, are a mechanism to reach out to people. When we're dressed up like that, kind of like sacred clowns, it allows people to interact with us."
AIDS education
The organization of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence occurred at the same time Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) began appearing in the Castro District and New York City. Some of the earliest attempts to bring attention to the new disease were staged by the Sisters, both in and out of costume. In 1982, Sister Florence Nightmare, RN (early AIDS activist and registered nurseRegistered nurse
A registered nurse is a nurse who has graduated from a nursing program at a university or college and has passed a national licensing exam. A registered nurse helps individuals, families, and groups to achieve health and prevent disease...
Bobbi Campbell
Bobbi Campbell
Bobbi Campbell was an early United States AIDS activist. In September 1981, Campbell became the 16th person in San Francisco to be diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma. He was the first to come out publicly as a person living with the then unnamed disease...
) and Sister Roz Erection (also a nurse) joined with a team of Sisters and medical professionals to create "Play Fair!", the first safer sex pamphlet to use plain language, practical advice and humor, and considered by one of the founders to be "one of the Order's greatest achievement in community education and support". In 1999, for the Sisters' 20th anniversary the pamphlet was revised. The Sisters worldwide continue to raise awareness of sexual health; many Orders regularly pass out condoms and participate in events to educate people on sexual health issues.
Campbell appeared on the cover of Newsweek declaring himself to be the "AIDS poster boy" in 1983. He was active in AIDS education and prevention and split his appearances as himself and Sister Florence Nightmare until his death in 1984. He and three other Castro residents started the AIDS Candlelight Memorial. Losing several members to AIDS in the early 1980s, the Sisters' presence at the 1986 Castro Street Fair was accomplished with less than a dozen members who sponsored a fund-raising and safer sex education booth that featured pie throwing with the slogan "Cream yer Sister, not yer lover!"
Folk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt, is an enormous quilt made as a memorial to and celebration of the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes...
. Created in the early 1990s the quilt has made history several times. It was featured at the 1996 NAMES quilt display in Washington, D.C. in front of the U.S. House of Representatives and was among the first quilts viewed by then Vice President Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
and his wife Tipper Gore
Tipper Gore
Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore , née Aitcheson, is an author, photographer, former second lady of the United States, and the estranged wife of Al Gore...
and later featured in the Names Projects' calendar worldwide. The Nuns of The Above quilt itself has been flown around the United States and is in high demand for local displays. While in town for the AIDS Memorial Quilt display the Sisters led an exorcism
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...
of homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
, classism
Classism
Classism is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes and behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper classes at the expense of the lower classes...
and racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
on the steps of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, and assisted with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) death march and protest, to the gates of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
where ashes of people who had died from AIDS were illegally spread on the lawn.
Political activism and protest
In 1982, Jack Fertig, known as Sister Boom Boom, ran for San Francisco Board of Supervisors earning over 23,000 votes with her occupation listed as "Nun of the Above". San Francisco passed a law soon after, commonly called the "Sister Boom Boom Law", that all people running for office had to do so with their legal name.Outlined as one of the Sisters' missions "to promulgate universal joy and to expiate stigmatic guilt", the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have a history of bringing attention to conservative movements that attempt to shame members of the LGBT community or people with HIV/AIDS. Sisters performed a public exorcism
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...
of anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly
Phyllis Schlafly
Phyllis McAlpin Stewart Schlafly is a Constitutional lawyer and an American politically conservative activist and author who founded the Eagle Forum. She is known for her opposition to modern feminism ideas and for her campaign against the proposed Equal Rights Amendment...
that was deliberately timed to take place at Union Square during the 1984 Democratic National Convention
1984 Democratic National Convention
The 1984 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California from July 16 to July 19, 1984, to select a candidate for the 1984 United States presidential election. At the convention Walter Mondale was nominated for President and Geraldine...
, taking place in San Francisco. A Sister dressed as Schlafly was held down as another spoke to the crowd, and other Sisters pulled out rubber snakes from the mock-Schlafly's clothing. Also taking place was Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
's Family Forum, hosted by the Moral Majority
Moral Majority
The Moral Majority was a political organization of the United States which had an agenda of evangelical Christian-oriented political lobbying...
whose major planks focused on condemning homosexuality, pornography, and abortion. A Sister dressed as Falwell was undressed during the performance to reveal fishnet stockings and a corset in front of an audience of 2,000.
In 1987, their Castro Street Fair presence was a protest of the rhetoric of Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
, a California politician who advocated for quarantines for people living with AIDS. The Sisters covered their costumes with "Stop LaRouche" buttons, selling them as they mingled in the crowd to raise money for San Francisco General Hospital
San Francisco General Hospital
San Francisco General Hospital is the main public hospital in San Francisco, California, and the only Level I Trauma Center serving San Francisco and northern San Mateo County...
's AIDS ward. The same year the Sisters held another mock exorcism, this time of Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, coinciding with his visit to San Francisco, calling it the "Official San Francisco Papal Welcoming Committee". The Pope's visit stressed relations between Catholics and gays when Cardinal Ratzinger released an open letter from the Vatican clarifying the Church's position on homosexuality and recent events in San Francisco. The Bay Area Reporter, a local gay weekly newspaper, summarized the intent with their headline, "Pope to Gays: 'Drop Dead' ", and took greatest offense with the Vatican's points that gays cause the violence against them, and that they were primarily responsible for the AIDS crisis. The Sisters claim the action, also taking place in Union Square, earned the organization a spot on the Papal List of Heretics.
Continuing the tradition, members of the San Diego Order have made a presence at a Christian fundamentalist youth revival meeting called Teen Mania Ministries
Teen Mania Ministries
Teen Mania Ministries is an Evangelical Christian youth organization located in Garden Valley, Texas. Teen Mania focuses primarily on four key programs, with a few additional smaller endeavours....
from 2006 to 2008. Sisters Iona Dubble-Wyde and Freeda Sole stood outside the Cox Arena
Cox Arena
Officially Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl, located on the San Diego State University campus in San Diego, California, is the home of the San Diego State Aztecs men's basketball and women's basketball teams. Viejas Arena opened its doors to the campus and community in July of 1997 and seats 12,414 for...
in full regalia to intercept pastors and attendees. The responses from the children and adolescents were varied. While some told the Sisters they were going to hell, others asked questions and offered thanks and hugs; the event was generally reported as positive.
Halloween
Celebrated even when the Castro was predominantly an Irish Catholic family neighborhood, as the demographics transformed, Halloween in the CastroHalloween in the Castro
The Halloween celebration held in The Castro district of San Francisco began in the 1940s as a neighborhood costume contest. By the late 1970s, it had shifted from a children's event to a gay celebration that continued to grow into a massive annual street party until 2006 when a shooting wounded...
became a major city event, described by author David Skal as "gay high holy day", attracting thousands of outsiders. On October 31, 1989, two weeks after San Francisco was devastated by the 6.9 (Richter scale
Richter magnitude scale
The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....
) Loma Prieta earthquake, the Sisters used donation buckets to collect thousands of dollars for the mayor's Earthquake Relief Fund from the Halloween crowds that poured into the Castro neighborhood for the massive street party.
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
. When the police confiscated an AK-47 from a reveler trying to gain access to Castro Street, and they reported that 50 to 60 people had been arrested, the Sisters decided to move the celebration and Halloween in the Castro ended. The next year, the Sisters hosted a costume-mandatory dance named HallowQueen in a South of Market
South of Market, San Francisco, California
South of Market is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States.-Name and location:Its boundaries are Market Street to the northwest, San Francisco Bay to the northeast, Mission Creek to the southeast, and Division Street, 13th Street and U.S. Route 101 to the southwest...
gay nightclub, which raised over $6,000 for charity.
A decade later the city was still struggling to manage the Halloween event. In 2006 nine people were wounded when a gunman opened fire at the celebration; it was canceled in 2007. The Sisters continued to organize private and safe events, raising money every year for charity. Without city funds they managed to keep the chaos under control by providing entertainment and structure. Their abilities for staging and running large events has kept them in demand as event organizers and advisers.
Community involvement
The Sisters have been involved in various causes, including promoting safer sex, raising money for HIV/AIDS and breast cancerBreast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
research, the Gay Games
Gay Games
The Gay Games is the world's largest sporting and cultural event organized by and specifically for LGBT athletes, artists, musicians, and others. It welcomes participants of every sexual orientation and every skill level...
, Haight Ashbury Free Clinics
Haight Ashbury Free Clinics
The Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, Inc. is a free health care service provider serving more than 34,000 people in Northern California. The organization was founded by Dr. David E Smith in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, California on June 7, 1967 during the counterculture of the 1960s...
, and raising the "first legal $1000" for a city proposition to legalize medical marijuana. Sister Roma
Sister Roma
Sister Roma is the stage name of Michael Williams , an American drag queen and art director of gay pornography. She is a twenty-year member of San Francisco's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Inc.-Career:...
—There's No Place Like Rome! organized a "Stop the Violence" campaign in the Castro where the Sisters distributed placards in homes and businesses to signify which were safe places to go, and whistles to be used to alert those nearby in case of attack. They have sponsored dances for LGBT youth, and given to or worked for a variety of similar objectives.
Religious parodies
Using their attire to parody nuns and religious sacrament, some actions of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have gone farther to offend Catholics. As early as 1982 the Catholic Church in San Francisco protested the methods of the Sisters, particularly when they attended an interfaith prayer service at St. Mary's CathedralCathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption
The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, also known locally as Saint Mary's Cathedral, is the principal church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco in San Francisco, California...
. Balking at the stage names of Sister Hysterectoria and Boom Boom, an editorial in a local Catholic magazine named the Monitor stated, "The organization, their names, and their use of religious habits is an affront to religious women and Catholics in general".
Starting in 1995, the Sisters began a Castro Crawl on Easter Sunday to celebrate their anniversary. The event features a 13-stop pub crawl
Pub crawl
A pub crawl is the act of one or more people drinking in multiple pubs or bars in a single night, normally walking or busing to each one between drinking.-Origin of the term:...
that parodies Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...
. At each station in front of a gay bar or similarly affiliated organization, the Sisters call out "We adore thee, O Christ" to be answered by their traveling audience in "Luvya, mean it, let's do brunch". Actors portray the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
, and other people integral to Easter traditions, and the Sisters continue to educate for safer sex by passing out condoms, ending the event with a toast of vanilla wafers and Jägermeister
Jägermeister
Jägermeister is a German 70-proof digestif made with 56 different herbs and spices. It is the flagship product of Mast-Jägermeister SE, headquartered in Wolfenbüttel, south of Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany.- History :...
.
Tom Ammiano
Tom Ammiano is an American politician and LGBT rights activist from San Francisco, California. Ammiano is a Democrat who has served as a member of the California State Assembly since 2008, representing the 13th district...
came into conflict with some in San Francisco's Catholic community when the Board of Supervisors, at Ammiano's request, granted the Sisters a permit to close a block of Castro Street for their 20th anniversary celebration on Easter Sunday, that included a "Hunky Jesus" contest among other activities. San Francisco's archdiocese requested the event be moved to another day. The city's Interfaith Council suggested the following Sunday, which was the Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Easter. An Archdiocese newspaper compared the Sisters' event to neo-Nazis
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
celebrating on the Jewish holiday of Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
. The controversy sparked a flurry of responses in The San Francisco Chronicles Letters to the Editor. The Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
wrote to reply that such a characterization was offensive and "trivializes the horrific actions of hate groups" while others reflected offense at the sacrilege of the Sisters' actions, and other writers merely wondered what the fuss was about. The resulting attention ensured a crowd of 5,000 attendees and what the Sisters claimed to be a million dollars of free publicity. In actuality, the event raised about $13,000 for the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center
San Francisco LGBT Community Center
The San Francisco LGBT Community Center is a nonprofit organization serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population of San Francisco, California and nearby communities, located at 1800 Market Street in San Francisco....
, among various groups.
In 2001, the Catholic League
Catholic League (U.S.)
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, often shortened to the Catholic League, is an American Catholic anti-defamation and civil rights organization...
for Religious and Civil Rights requested the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have their tax-free non-profit status revoked by the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
, claiming that while they perform fundraising and other community activities, they do it in the spirit of anti-Catholicism. Catholic League president William A. Donohue
William A. Donohue
William Anthony "Bill" Donohue is the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States, a position he has held since 1993.-Life and career:...
states, "It is ludicrous on the face of it for the Sisters to maintain that one of the major issues they address is 'the role of religion in daily life.' How? By simulating sodomy while dressed as nuns, using a gas pump as a phallic symbol?" The Catholic League further branded the Sisters an "anti-Catholic group" and called for the boycott of Miller beer
Miller Brewing Company
The Miller Brewing Company is an American beer brewing company owned by the United Kingdom-based SABMiller. Its regional headquarters are located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the company has brewing facilities in Albany, Georgia; Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin; Eden, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas;...
in 2007 for sponsoring the Folsom Street Fair
Folsom Street Fair
The Folsom Street Fair is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held on the last Sunday in September and caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week"...
, an event organized in part by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
The Sisters were featured in a 2008 book titled Catholic and Queer where they explained that their mode of dress was meant not only to employ the "fabulous attire" that had been forsaken by Catholic non-cloistered orders, but that their dedication to community service is an attempt to "honor and emulate [the] unstinting devotion" of actual nuns who work within their neighborhoods.
The Reno Pride
In August 1999, the Sisters were invited to be Parade Grand MarshalGrand Marshal
Grand Marshal is a ceremonial, military, or political office of very high rank. The term has its origins with the word "Marshal" with the first usage of the term "Grand Marshal" as a ceremonial title for certain religious orders...
s at Reno
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
's first Pride Parade. Nevada's Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Governor Kenny Guinn
Kenny Guinn
Kenneth Carroll "Kenny" Guinn was an American businessman, educator and politician. He was the 27th Governor of Nevada from 1999 to 2007. He was a member of the Republican Party and a former member of the Democratic Party....
signed a bill in May outlawing discrimination against gays and lesbians in Nevada so the LGBT community was disappointed when he refused to sign a proclamation in support of the Reno Pride Parade which parade organizers were assured he would and is regularly done for pride events. On June 11, 1999, President Clinton issued a proclamation designating June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month but Governor Guinn refused to issue a Gay Pride Day proclamation for the event largely because of the Sisters' participation, which he feared might offend people of faith. About 6,000 participants attended Reno's Pride celebration although it attracted a few protesters as well.
"Saints"
Over the years the Sisters have named as saintSaint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s hundreds of people who have helped on various projects behind the scenes organizing, coordining actions or projects, performing at events as an artist or emcee or even serving the greater GLBTI community. Rarely but sometimes they canonize
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
community heroes who have recently died. Some of the more notable saints include:
- assassinated SF Supervisor Harvey MilkHarvey MilkHarvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
, - California State SenatorCalifornia State SenateThe California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
Carole MigdenCarole MigdenCarole Migden is an American politician from San Francisco, California who represented the third district of the California State Senate from 2004 to 2008 and the 13th district of the California State Assembly from 1996 to 2002....
, - San Francisco Mayor Gavin NewsomGavin NewsomGavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...
, - New PaltzNew Paltz, New YorkNew Paltz is a town in Ulster County, New York, USA. The population was 14,003 at the 2010 census. The town is located in the southeastern part of the county and is south of Kingston, New York. New Paltz contains a village also with the name New Paltz...
Mayor Jason WestJason WestJason West is the mayor of the village of New Paltz, New York, having resumed the duties of office on June 1, 2011. He served previously as the village's mayor from January 1, 2003 to May 31, 2007....
, - San Francisco Supervisors Tom AmmianoTom AmmianoTom Ammiano is an American politician and LGBT rights activist from San Francisco, California. Ammiano is a Democrat who has served as a member of the California State Assembly since 2008, representing the 13th district...
and Bevan DuftyBevan DuftyBevan Dufty is an American politician and former Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He represented San Francisco's District 8, encompassing the 71,000 residents of Ashbury Heights, Buena Vista, The Castro, Diamond Heights, Dolores Park, Duboce Triangle, Glen Park, Noe Valley,...
, - General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Susan LealSusan LealSusan Leal is a water utility consultant, the co-author of the book Running out of Water. Formerly, she was the General Manager of SFPUC, San Francisco Treasurer and a San Francisco Supervisor. She lives in San Francisco, CA.-Early life and education:...
, - radical faerie founder Harry HayHarry HayHenry "Harry" Hay, Jr. was a labor advocate, teacher and early leader in the American LGBT rights movement. He is known for his roles in helping to found several gay organizations, including the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States.Hay was exposed early in...
, - authors Armistead MaupinArmistead MaupinArmistead Jones Maupin, Jr. is an American writer, best known for his Tales of the City series of novels, based in San Francisco.-Early life:...
and Tonne SerahWill RoscoeWill Roscoe is an American scholar, activist, and author based in San Francisco, California. He grew up in Missoula, Montana and helped found the Lambda Alliance at the University of Montana, that state's first LGBT organization in 1975, although he is heterosexual - Roscoe was inspired to...
, - actresses Margaret ChoMargaret ChoMargaret Cho is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality. She has also directed and appeared in music...
, Ethel MermanEthel MermanEthel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's...
and Rosie O'DonnellRosie O'DonnellRoseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American stand-up comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family...
, - Professor of Christian Theology at King Alfred's College, Winchester Dr. Elizabeth Stuart,
- medical marijuana activists Brownie MaryBrownie MaryMary Jane Rathbun , popularly known as Brownie Mary, was an American medical cannabis activist. Rathbun was a hospital volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital who became known for illegally baking and distributing chocolate cannabis brownies to AIDS patients...
and Ed RosenthalEd RosenthalEd Rosenthal is a California horticulturist, author, publisher, and Cannabis grower known for his advocacy for the legalization of marijuana use. He served as a columnist for High Times Magazine during the 80's and 90's...
, - artist Derek JarmanDerek JarmanMichael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
, - former SF City Assessor-Recorder Mabel Teng,
- community activists and organizers;
- Michael BrandonMichael Brandon (porn star)Michael Brandon is an American community activist, pornographic actor and director formerly exclusive to Raging Stallion who specializes in gay pornography...
, - Molly McKayMolly McKayMolly B. McKay, born September 9, 1970, is an attorney and a civil rights activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals. McKay was the former Co-Executive Director of Marriage Equality California and the former Media Director for Marriage Equality USA...
and Davina KotulskiDavina KotulskiDavina Kotulski, Ph.D., born on January 22, 1970, is a well-known, long-time marriage equality activist and leader in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equal Rights movement. Kotulski began publicly advocating for marriage equality in 1999...
, - Tony Buff, Mr. Leather Washington 2002
- Jackie ForsterJackie ForsterJackie Forster was born 6 November 1926 and died in London on 10 October 1998. She married her novelist husband, Peter Forster in 1958 while she worked as a TV presenter and news reporter, but divorced him in 1962 when she realised her true sexual identity...
, - Peter TatchellPeter TatchellPeter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...
, - Tony Whitehead, the first Chair of the Terrence Higgins Trust (the largest AIDS charity in Europe);
- Ian Campbell DunnIan Campbell DunnIan Campbell Dunn was a gay rights campaigner who lived and worked in Scotland.-Life and career:Dunn began his work in gay rights activism after finding that the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which partially decriminalized homosexual relations between adult men, applied only to England and Wales and...
- community drag icons and activists;
- Juanita More,
- Trauma Flintstone,
- Connie ChampagneConnie ChampagneConnie Champagne is an American singer, song-writer and actor. She won the SF Weekly Wammie Award for Outstanding Cabaret/Lounge Performer. She is known for performing Judy Garland impersonations including Christmas With the Crawfords in 2001 and Imagine Judy Garland: An Evening With Connie...
, - Donna SachetDonna SachetDonna Sachet is an American drag actor, singer, community activist, spokesmodel, and writer based in San Francisco. She has been awarded many community honors including as Grand Marshal in the San Francisco Pride parade and being named first lady of the Castro district by California Senator Mark Leno...
, - HekilinaTrannyshackTrannyshack is a monthly drag club taking place at DNA Lounge in San Francisco. It was started by drag queen Heklina in 1996 as an offshoot of Klubstitute, and was a weekly fixture at The Stud bar in San Francisco for 12 years, drawing large crowds on a regular basis...
and - Peaches ChristPeaches ChristPeaches Christ is an American underground drag performer, emcee, filmmaker, and actor. Peaches currently resides in San Francisco where his Backlash Production Company and Midnight Mass movie series are based....
.
See also
- Gender benderGender benderGender bender is an informal term used to refer to a person who actively transgresses, or "bends," expected gender roles. Gender bending is sometimes a form of social activism undertaken in response to assumptions or over-generalisations about genders...
- GenderqueerGenderqueerGenderqueer is a catch-all term for gender identities other than man and woman, thus outside of the gender binary and heteronormativity...
- Pink SaturdayPink SaturdayPink Saturday is a street party held the Saturday night before San Francisco Pride in San Francisco's Castro district. It coincides with the annual Dyke March.Attendees are asked to donate money at the gate...
- Radical FaeriesRadical FaeriesThe Radical Faeries are a loosely-affiliated, worldwide network and counter-cultural movement seeking to reject hetero-imitation and redefine queer identity through spirituality. The Radical Faerie movement started in the United States among gay men during the 1970s sexual and counterculture...
- Gay ShameGay shameGay Shame is a movement from within the LGBT and queer communities described as a radical alternative to gay mainstreaming and directly posits an alternative view of traditional "gay pride" events and activities which have become increasingly commercialized with corporate sponsors and "safer"...