Who are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence? Get to know the nuns of drag

French Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence during Paris Christopher Street Day in 2009
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Though the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an international order of drag nuns, has existed since 1979, the group has recently regained public notoriety for their decades of community activism and their Catholic critics who accuse them of religious mockery.

Related: After Dodgers’ snub, Anaheim mayor invites Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Angels’ Pride Night

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have played an interesting and vital role in LGBTQ+ culture, with a dramatic history of direct activism that exemplifies their playful, queer countercultural spirit as well as their devotion to marginalized communities that continues to the present day.

Origins and History

The spirit of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is rooted in San Francisco’s 1960s counterculture movement, which embraced sexual positivity, mind-expanding drug use, and poking fun at mainstream culture. As more gay men migrated to the city throughout the 1970s, this spirit met a queer artistic sensibility that used drag and non-traditional spirituality to affirm queer lives while rejecting the anti-LGBTQ+ gender conformity of the newly emerging Christian “moral majority.”

On Easter weekend 1979, three men…

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