Queering Easter: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Redefine Sainthood

[Shana A]

Queering Easter: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Redefine Sainthood
By Susan Henking
April 2, 2010

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/2354/queering_easter:_the_sisters_of_perpetual_indulgence_redefine_sainthood

An order of queer nuns, founded in San Francisco thirty-one years ago, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is now a full-fledged pastoral and charitable organization, having given away more than a million dollars. They've also raised pioneers in LGBT and AIDS/HIV rights to sainthood, creating their own holy calendar.
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 1983

One of my favorite memories of gay and lesbian life was the one time I went to a Gay Pride march in San Francisco, now multiple decades ago. Among the memorable wonders was a small group who called themselves the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. On and off over the decades, I have thought of those drag nuns, roller skating along the Castro, throwing flowers into the crowd (and kisses) and hooting and hollering with the best of them.

Years later, when I co-edited Que(e)rying Religion with Gary David Comstock, I really wanted to have a picture of those nuns on the cover. To me, they were a vision of the complications of religion and sexuality.