Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (also Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI)) are "radical genderfuck" artists, activists and self-described 21st century nuns for the queer (gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, lesbian, kink, etc.) communities. They are highly visible gay icons and social activists and have used their visibility to advance a host of human rights and liberal issues both within the LGBT community and in mainstream society. One of the most visible and well known is Sister Roma.

The international network of Orders is mostly non-profit charity organizations within their countries, raising money for AIDS, other LGBT-related charities and mainstream community service organizations, helping lead the campaign for safer sex and harm reduction, performing modern ritual and educating on various issues and against hate crimes.

The Sisters have been considered controversial by various members both within and outside the LGBT and queer communities but have received the harshest criticism for obvious parodies of Catholic icons and policies.

The San Francisco Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have raised well over $1,000,000 and distributed it to non-profit organizations that serve not only the queer and sex positive communities but also mainstream organizations that don't discriminate their charity work such as the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and women's breast cancer charities including Wendy's Hope.

Mission statement and vows

The Sisters' mission statement describes the organization and its aims thus:

The Sisters devote ourselves to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment. The Sisters believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty and use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.

The Sisters' state vows to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt while serving their respective communities.

Structure and membership

The Sisters are a loosely connected global network of autonomous Orders or Houses with the San Francisco Motherhouse anchoring much of the activities as being the largest, biggest fundraiser and arguably the most active. They have members in at least thirteen US states as well as eight countries on five continents and rely on the Internet to communicate. Most of the Orders are based in gay meccas and directly assess and address the needs of their communities, and thus are highly responsive to issues pertaining the LGBT and alternative communities which they serve.

The organization was started in 1979 in San Francisco, California, and has more than six hundred nuns worldwide with new members joining regularly and new houses being established. Originally, the organization included only gay male nuns, but it now includes all genders and orientations including intersex, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, and transgender people. Activities and actions

Safer Sex/Play Fair

Sister Stigmata Hari (left) and another member at a charity event sponsored by the New York City chapter.In 1982, Sister Florence Nightmare, RN (registered nurse) and Sister Roz Erection (also an RN) 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. It was so well received that it had to go through a second printing within just a few months. The first public sex-positive pamphlet preceded the AIDS pandemic and coined the phrase "safe sex". For their 20th Anniversary they revised it and it still remains one of the few sex-positive harm-reduction sexual pamphlets available. The Sisters worldwide continue to raise awareness of sexual health, healthy sexuality and many Orders regularly pass out condoms and participate in events to educate on sexual health issues.

AIDS Candlelight Vigil

In 1983, they helped organize the first AIDS Candlelight Vigil now known throughout the world as the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial, which is now the world's largest grass-roots event taking place in thousands of communities around the world. It is a unique event that promotes discussion, education, and action around HIV/AIDS with the following four objectives:

Honor the memory of those lost to AIDS;
Show support for those living with HIV and AIDS;
Raise community awareness and decrease stigma related to HIV/AIDS; and
Mobilize community involvement in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

First Face of AIDS

Bobbi Campbell (Sister Florence Nightmare RN) became the first "face of AIDS" appearing on the cover of Newsweek (1983-08-08) with his lover. As part of the self-empowerment of people living with AIDS (PWAs) it was believed that humanizing the people behind the disease would lead to more compassion not only from religious and homophobic folks demonizing gays but also from the gay community that was at ground-zero of the impending global AIDS pandemic. Bobbi wrote of his experiences living with AIDS in a weekly column that touched people personally and in 1983, together with Dan Turner founded the People With AIDS Self-Empowerment Movement or PWA Movement

Rainbow flag

Main article: Rainbow flag

Gilbert Baker (Sister Chanel 2001) created and made public domain the Rainbow Flag, which is now the defining international symbol for LGBT human rights. After the 1978 assassination of openly gay City Supervisor Harvey Milk, demand for the rainbow flag greatly increased. To meet demand, the Paramount Flag Company began selling a version of the flag using stock rainbow fabric consisting of seven stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and violet. As Baker ramped up production of his version of the flag, he too dropped the hot pink stripe due to the unavailability of hot-pink fabric. Today it is recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers, and is flown in lesbian and gay pride marches and events worldwide. In 1989, the rainbow flag received nationwide attention after John Stout successfully sued his landlords in West Hollywood, when they prohibited him from displaying the flag from his apartment balcony. Meanwhile, Baker is still in San Francisco, and still making more flags.

Community fundraising

Sister Innocenta (Soeur Innocenta) of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Paris House, France (Les Soeurs de la Perpétuelle Indulgence - Couvent de Paris) at Gay-Pride, Paris, 2007.The Sisters have held fundraisers for the Cuban boat refugees (Mariel boatlift), the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, the Gay Olympics (now called the Gay Games); for Project Open Hand, an organization that provides meals to homebound people with HIV and AIDS; and for conferences, events and alternative proms for queer youth as well as dozens of other organizations every

Sister Boom Boom runs for office

In 1982, Sister Boom-Boom, since retired from the organization, ran for San Francisco Board of Supervisors and got 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. She was immortalized in Emily Mann's play "Execution of Justice" about the trial of Dan White for the assassinations of the city’s first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, and Mayor George Moscone who were killed in 1978. In the Broadway production she was played by Wesley Snipes

Exorcism of Pope John Paul II

Pope Dementia The Last, a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence San Francisco.The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence believe that many institutions and social constructs are a source of dogma, hypocrisy, guilt and shame. This has led to encounters with the Catholic Church. An example is when the Sisters staged an exorcism of Pope John Paul II because of his harsh condemnations against homosexuality. His first major statement on homosexuality was not made until 1986 but it marked a significant departure from the hopeful changes which had begun to mark the previous years. Issued on October 31, 1986, by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger it expressed harsh and uncompromising language. According to his “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,"

“Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder. Therefore special concern and pastoral attention should be directed to those who have this condition, lest they be led to believe that the living out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option. It is not."

The use of the phrase “objective disorder" outraged many as the Vatican had not used such language before and it was seen by some as a step backwards. John Paul II was teaching that even if homosexuality is not freely chosen it is nevertheless inherently and objectively wrong, not just homosexual activity but homosexual orientation itself

Queens of Halloween

On 31 October 1989, two weeks after San Francisco was devastated by the 6.9 (Richter scale) Loma Prieta earthquake,[22] the Sisters performed street theater and 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. Castro Halloween was safely managed by the Sisters from 1990-1995, until "drunken gay-bashers out to get their kicks" convinced the group the event was unsafe without official city support. The Sisters agreed to host a costume-mandatory dance, HallowQueen, in a SOMA gay nightclub, which raised over $6000 for charity as their contribution to helping move the event out of the mostly residential neighborhood.

A decade later San Francisco was still struggling to manage the Halloween event. In 2006 nine people were wounded when a gunman opened fire at the celebration. The celebration was canceled in 2007. The Sisters, in hindsight, have been seen as a bargain of sorts, raising money every year for charity without city funds while keeping 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.