Missing Witches - MW The Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence： Promulgate Universal Joy And Expiate Stigmatic Guilt

00:00:00.000 If you want to keep the Missing Witches Project alive, join our coven.

00:00:03.780 Buy our books, New Moon Magic, 13 Anti-Capitalist Tools of Resistance and Re-Enchantment,

00:00:10.020 and Missing Witches, Recovering True Histories of Feminist Magic. 0.93

00:00:14.720 Or just spread love. 1.00

00:00:16.820 Plant a seed. 0.97

00:00:18.580 Be a witch. 1.00

00:00:19.700 You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:26.280 You must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:27.700 What do you get when you cross a nun with a drag queen? 1.00

00:00:33.060 It sounds like the beginning of a riddle, right? 1.00

00:00:35.840 A joke?

00:00:37.320 But it is no joke.

00:00:40.620 Or maybe it is.

00:00:43.260 One whose punchline has been unfolding for 44 years. 0.97

00:00:50.920 So what do you get when you cross a nun with a drag queen? 0.99

00:00:55.080 Well, you get the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a global order of queer drag nuns whose bad habits are a world-changing mission of social justice, volunteering, fundraising, consciousness-raising, joy-raising, and generally throwing a monkey wrench into the dangerously normalized status quo. 1.00

00:01:21.240 As Sister Unity of the Los Angeles chapter explains, 1.00

00:01:25.560 We are queer nuns. We are LGBT nuns, serving the LGBT community.

00:01:36.500 And that's why, yes, the headpiece may look like a medieval French nun, but the rest looks absolutely gay, trans, queer, if you will.

00:01:48.280 We manifest in this very flamboyant way, not to poke fun at anyone,

00:01:52.720 but because this is what our community delights in.

00:01:57.680 We delight in theatre. We delight in glitter.

00:02:01.620 And this I love.

00:02:04.620 That's why I look this way.

00:02:06.960 And I use it to serve our community because it gets people's attention.

00:02:10.560 Then I can deliver a supportive message

00:02:12.660 about them having room in the world to be who they are, as they are, free from guilt, and with joy for their own life.

00:02:21.860 The one thing that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have in common is that we feel what we call a calling.

00:02:29.640 You see the sisters, you see the flamboyant color, but you also see the service and activism,

00:02:35.780 and it inspires you to join in. It lights a candle in your heart."

00:02:42.660 and this is perhaps the sisters greatest legacy not just the millions of dollars they've raised

00:02:54.340 nor the countless lives they've saved or improved but the fact that they exist at all

00:03:01.340 and knowing they exist lights a candle in all of our hearts the sisters says abbess sister

00:03:10.780 Tilda Next Time of San Francisco are a quote, non-profit organization dedicated to communities

00:03:18.560 that are not taken care of by the government. We are a group of queer nuns who serve our community

00:03:25.420 just like nuns do. We raise money for people who are in need. We are always at bars and just being

00:03:32.800 present for people on the street. A lot of people just need to have a talk. People have been suffering

00:03:38.980 from guilt that they are carrying, and we are just here to free the world from all the

00:03:44.200 guilt, to spread universal joy, and to show people that we love them, end quote.

00:03:52.600 What a remarkable mission.

00:03:57.520 Spread love.

00:03:59.600 Show people you love them.

00:04:02.040 On their official website, thesisters.org, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence describe

00:04:08.560 the founding of their religion thusly. Quote, 1979. On Easter weekend, during the time of the

00:04:17.900 Castro clone being extremely bored with the conformist atmosphere, three men went into the 0.98

00:04:24.060 streets to challenge the world. Ken Bunch, Sister Vicious PHB, Fred Brungard, Sister Missionary 0.86

00:04:32.180 Position, and Barrick Golden. They went in full traditional habits through the streets of our city

00:04:39.240 and down to the nude beach. One even carried a machine gun for protection. They were met with

00:04:45.780 shock and amazement, but captured everyone's interest. Their next appearance was at a softball

00:04:51.700 game where their pom-pom routine all but stole the show. In the fall of 1979, Sister Historectoria,

00:04:59.220 Edmund Guerin, and Reverend Mother, Bill Graham, went to the first international fairy gathering

00:05:07.100 and encountered even more men with the calling. Our four founders, Sister Vicious PHB, Reverend

00:05:14.600 Mother, Missionary Position, and Historectoria Agnes, convened their friends, chose our name,

00:05:21.840 the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and composed our mission statement,

00:05:26.080 to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt, end quote.

00:05:33.500 Some retellings suggest that the skewed costumes, nun habits, and face paint

00:05:39.140 functioned as somewhat of a disguise. 0.80

00:05:42.300 The first sisters were sex workers, so the story goes, 1.00

00:05:45.720 so they didn't want to risk their clients recognizing them on the street 0.57

00:05:49.900 as they performed their guerrilla theatre.

00:05:53.180 Legend or truth or somewhere in between,

00:05:55.620 this lineage has informed much of the sisters' work.

00:06:00.100 And what better chosen people to emerge 0.57

00:06:03.460 with the horsemen of the AIDS apocalypse galloping just over the horizon 1.00

00:06:08.820 than a merry band of gay sex workers 1.00

00:06:11.780 dressed as drag nuns 1.00

00:06:14.040 feeding the poor and comforting the sick 0.98

00:06:17.120 protesting for people and the environment

00:06:20.260 pulling from hundreds of years of Catholic tradition

00:06:24.200 then deconstructing and reconstructing it to their own interpretation.

00:06:29.920 Their first major protest spectacle came at an anti-nuke demonstration on the heels of the three-mile island partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania.

00:06:42.120 The sisters performed the Rosary in time of nuclear peril.

00:06:46.920 It is Catholic custom to pray the rosary, like mala beads in Hinduism, to have a string of beads that one uses to count the repetitions of a prayer or mantra.

00:06:58.360 But ever skewed, the sisters' version of holy prayer included their cheerleader-esque pom-pom routine. 0.90

00:07:05.840 There is a genius to this appropriation, I think, because these queer nuns are wholly consistent 0.98

00:07:15.120 and wholly contradictory. Their appearance is familiar and shocking all at once. We're lured 1.00

00:07:25.140 into the well-known melody of Amazing Grace, only to realize the nuns have changed the lyrics to

00:07:31.180 amazing pride. But it's not just an aesthetic. This is form and content at its peak, dear Coven,

00:07:40.180 because the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are nuns. Queer nuns. Queering nunhood, 1.00

00:07:48.820 where activism is at the core of a benevolent mission to spread love and hope. The Sisters

00:07:55.460 take a religion that largely excludes them, and re-homes it inside of a praxis for the pre-utopia. 1.00

00:08:04.040 In dark times, dear Coven, conjure in your mind a renegade troupe of queer nuns, 0.97

00:08:12.080 sparkling in all their glorious contradictions, reverence, irreverence, protest, and delight.

00:08:19.680 Know that they exist outside of imagination

00:08:24.360 Invite them into your heart

00:08:27.780 And let them light a candle of possibility, hope, and inspiration

00:08:33.380 The sisters continue to celebrate their Easter anniversary in blasphemous pageantry

00:08:40.120 With hunky Jesus contests and of course fundraising for their community

00:08:45.940 This year, more than 50 hunks in Jesus drag showed up to compete at the San Francisco event.

00:08:53.700 Sister Callie Vagilistic Ex-Bialidocious said, quote,

00:08:58.460 Drag removes oneself from their everyday self. Drag can be an expression of an inner self. It

00:09:05.600 allows us an opportunity to reach deep inside and find something and pull that forward. For me,

00:09:14.220 it allows me to integrate myself more fully and more authentically. But drag is something that

00:09:20.360 has been used throughout humanity, through the history of mankind. Healers and shamans throughout

00:09:27.140 tribal cultures and indigenous cultures, there have been many, many names that referred to an

00:09:33.640 individual that dresses contrary to the gender that they were born. And they often served in

00:09:38.860 very specific functions within their communities, be they healer or counselor, or the bridge between

00:09:46.200 men and women to counsel folks in marriage, and other situations that may be in need of the special

00:09:53.600 insight of this person that essentially walks between two worlds. Drag moves us into a place 0.89

00:10:00.300 where we're neither in this world or that world, we're neither in the world of men, we're neither 0.99

00:10:05.660 in the world of women, somewhere in between. And it's always been my understanding that it's in

00:10:12.500 the in-between space where magic can happen. And what the sisters offered to the community is an

00:10:18.800 opportunity for that magic. We don't define what it might be. Just try to be present for whatever

00:10:25.960 it could be. End quote. Callie explains that this drag, this visceral presence of the extreme,

00:10:34.200 raises the bar for other people, in a sense, pushes the boundary of what is acceptable or

00:10:40.560 possible so far that it creates extra space for people who are just thinking about testing their

00:10:48.340 own limits, manifesting their own selves. The sisters exist as emblematic of one of the best

00:10:56.480 pieces of advice I ever got. Take the work seriously, but never take yourself too seriously.

00:11:04.200 Melissa M. Wilcox, author of Queer Nuns, Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody, wrote, quote,

00:11:12.980 The playful sexual humor and the commitment to activism, education, and various other forms of community service are consistent across the order, as are these sisters' simultaneous camping and claiming of the role of the nun.

00:11:29.500 Queer Nuns focuses on this unusual approach to activism. 0.51

00:11:35.240 As an activist strategy, what I call serious parody simultaneously critiques and reclaims cultural traditions in the interest of supporting the lives and political objectives of marginalized groups.

00:11:49.720 considering themselves quite seriously to be nuns

00:11:53.480 while at the same time parodying the Roman Catholic Church

00:11:57.320 which has been such a vocal opponent of LGBTQ communities in recent decades.

00:12:02.660 The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence enact serious parody

00:12:07.580 by combining the familiar tropes of drag queen and female religious renunciant

00:12:13.600 to produce an image and a role

00:12:16.840 that have opened space for both vocal political protest

00:12:21.720 and day-to-day community service and activism, end quote.

00:12:28.900 This is witchcraft to me,

00:12:31.880 to find a way to reclaim and critique

00:12:35.300 and re-enchant our tools and the world around us,

00:12:39.460 to find actions that delight,

00:12:42.180 that help our communities

00:12:43.660 and throw a spanner in the works of individualism all at the same time.

00:12:49.840 Take back possessions of the traditions of our ancestors.

00:12:55.380 Wisdom bent and weaponized against us.

00:12:59.560 Then bend it back again and use it for our own protection,

00:13:03.900 our own glory, in service to love.

00:13:08.720 When Sister Roma, you'll hear our interview with Sister Roma later this week,

00:13:12.940 First joined the order in the 80s, there were only five members.

00:13:18.220 Now there are hundreds in dozens of chapters across four continents.

00:13:25.100 Run entirely by volunteers, each chapter is unique, has their own signature headpiece.

00:13:31.360 Some quaffs, wimples, and veils are based very closely on traditional historical nuns,

00:13:37.040 while others are made of pizza boxes.

00:13:39.260 And each chapter raises money and volunteers for their own unique causes like housing, food, education, research, and liberation.

00:13:51.040 With events ranging from bingo nights to lavish galas, all in support of their local communities.

00:13:58.880 In 1981, the sisters produced the world's first fundraiser benefit for an AIDS organization.

00:14:05.260 It was a dog show on Castro Street.

00:14:09.260 The artist responsible for one of my all-time favorite disco songs,

00:14:14.940 Mighty Reel's Sylvester, served as a judge.

00:14:19.180 It's like I dreamt it.

00:14:21.260 But they also produced Safer Sex and AIDS informational pamphlets,

00:14:26.740 which San Francisco nurses passed out in hospitals.

00:14:30.520 Since the American healthcare system, woefully behind and frustratingly silent on the issue,

00:14:36.740 had itself created no such literature. 0.55

00:14:41.840 In 1982, Sister Boom Boom ran for San Francisco Board of Supervisors. 1.00

00:14:48.220 Soon after, San Francisco passed a law commonly called the Sister Boom Boom Law 0.64

00:14:52.780 that all people running for office had to do so with their legal name.

00:14:58.260 Interestingly, decades later, Sister Roma would campaign against Facebook

00:15:02.840 when they tried to impose a similar legal names only.

00:15:06.740 rule. Mother Mandragora Salacious in Purple was 14 years old, living in Leicester in the

00:15:17.440 Midlands of England, when she saw an interview with Sister Boom Boom on television. Almost a

00:15:22.840 decade later, Mandragora found herself in London at a protest for gay rights themed as a kiss inn 0.97

00:15:30.340 and spotted a drag nun. Mandragora asked, are you a sister of perpetual indulgence? 0.94

00:15:37.260 Yes. Can I join? Yes. And so Mandragora joined the young offshoot chapter of the sisters,

00:15:45.760 the London House. Together they battled Section 28, a series of laws across Britain that prohibited

00:15:53.360 the promotion of homosexuality. Introduced by Margaret Thatcher's conservative government,

00:15:59.760 Section 28 was a precursor to what Americans call Don't Say Gay.

00:16:05.140 The London House chose Derek Jarman, an English artist, filmmaker, and activist

00:16:10.180 who campaigned for gay rights and was outspoken about his own personal battle with HIV and AIDS,

00:16:16.940 to be sainted in a ceremony both political and holy.

00:16:23.340 Jarman had called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, quote,

00:16:26.020 the shock troops of gay liberation, end quote. They scripted and improvised what a ritual of

00:16:33.600 bestowing sainthood might look like through their lens, singing bawdy songs to the tunes of familiar

00:16:41.160 hymns, all nuns bright and beautiful, and so on. Jarman wore a sparkling gold lame robe.

00:16:49.760 Sister Celeb announced the laying on of hands to join together at Jarman's temple, his body, and all those in attendance at once placed a hand on Derek's shoulder, arms, knees, touching and venerating him.

00:17:09.740 And he was given a necklace and was declared St. Derek of Dungeness of the Order of Celluloid Knights.

00:17:16.920 here is a message to all witches we need not be deities or demigods for our touch to be healing

00:17:27.260 in 1987 princess diana of wales shocked the world when she visited aids patients in a hospital in

00:17:36.720 london and was photographed shaking a patient's hand without gloves today sisters visit sick

00:17:44.040 people in hospice. You can watch videos on YouTube and see the sisters in the street

00:17:48.980 hugging the unhoused. These touches are healing. The laying of hands.

00:17:56.860 I came of age in the early 90s, having sex for the first time under the looming shadow of the

00:18:02.300 AIDS crisis. The first time I had P&V sex, I used a condom I had picked up for free from the AIDS

00:18:08.860 committee office where I'd been volunteering. This was back in the pre-internet 90s when

00:18:14.340 consciousness raising was more than a click away. It often meant setting up a table in the mall

00:18:19.480 to pass out condoms and educational paper pamphlets on protected sex. It meant looking

00:18:25.960 people in the eye as they asked if wearing a red ribbon would make them gay, afraid they could get

00:18:32.340 aids from a handshake. Smiling. No, it doesn't mean you're gay. Just that you support people

00:18:38.860 who are sick and struggling, and you want to protect yourself and others from transmission.

00:18:44.820 Smiling warmly. You shake their hand, hoping this is healing too.

00:18:51.300 Part of my training was to consider the following question. Say you run into someone from the

00:18:56.560 committee on the street, and the person you're with asks how you know them. How do you respond?

00:19:01.180 I stammered, uh, maybe they're a friend of my mom?

00:19:06.880 The necessary secrecy was heartbreaking.

00:19:10.540 But in keeping with what would become Act Up's slogan,

00:19:14.360 silence equals death, 0.88

00:19:16.280 the modern sisters keep no such secrecy. 0.99

00:19:20.620 They are loud and in your face.

00:19:23.300 And while they're in your face, they'll educate you, heal you,

00:19:27.000 make you believe in magic.

00:19:29.500 The sisters made national headlines again this year 1.00

00:19:32.160 with an absolutely chaotic debacle with the baseball franchise, the LA Dodgers.

00:19:39.000 Sister Roma and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were invited

00:19:42.060 to be honoured at the Dodgers Stadium as part of Pride Night.

00:19:46.700 Then there were protests and the sisters were uninvited.

00:19:49.780 Then counter-protests and they were re-invited. 0.96

00:19:53.960 It's also ridiculous. 1.00

00:19:55.180 but luckily there is no one more at home inside the ridiculous than a drag nun at this point you 1.00

00:20:05.580 might be thinking about becoming a sister yourself and asking what does it take to be a sister of 0.90

00:20:10.680 perpetual indulgence well luckily again the sisters.org has an article entitled what it

00:20:18.260 takes to be a sister of perpetual indulgence so i'll let the sisters answer that in their own words

00:20:24.400 Quote, being a sister requires a lot of different skills and an investment in time and energy.

00:20:33.760 In evaluating a potential new member, we look at a number of things.

00:20:37.420 We look for drive, passion, and commitment.

00:20:41.040 A desire to perform community service.

00:20:43.860 The ability to handle many tasks with grace, honesty, and a genuine character.

00:20:50.080 Good people skills.

00:20:51.340 and the ability to interact with others in a meaningful way.

00:20:55.500 However, having the drive and skills is not enough.

00:21:00.700 The order is made up of people who all must be able to work together,

00:21:07.060 smoothly, and efficiently.

00:21:09.560 We are far from perfect and, like any family, often have our misunderstandings.

00:21:15.180 Despite that, we all work toward our common goals

00:21:18.560 and often can make miracles happen.

00:21:22.340 A new member must be able to mesh with the Order

00:21:24.660 and should add to the group dynamic,

00:21:27.660 not detract from it.

00:21:29.880 We are more than just another community service organization.

00:21:33.800 We are sisters.

00:21:36.880 As with our more traditional counterparts,

00:21:39.560 nearly all of us felt a genuine calling to do this work.

00:21:43.400 There is room for a lot of fun in the Order,

00:21:46.140 but we take our callings and our vows very seriously.

00:21:51.640 The majority of sisters consider this a lifelong vocation.

00:21:55.820 The path may twist and turn.

00:21:58.580 The outer manifestation may change.

00:22:01.420 But the commitment to service never wavers.

00:22:05.880 End quote.

00:22:08.120 Recently, the Portland chapter bestowed sainthood upon our beloved witch, Jinx Monsoon.

00:22:16.140 As we witches search for inspiration, for ways to be of service, justice, grace, honesty, and a genuine character,

00:22:26.320 to deliver a supportive message about having room in the world to be who we are, as we are,

00:22:35.260 free from guilt, and with joy for our own lives,

00:22:39.160 let us pray to these holy heretics, these divinely dissident disruptors,

00:22:46.780 these sisters of perpetual indulgence. Check and see if there's an order of sisters near you. 0.98

00:22:55.700 Be present for magic. Make miracles. May we all find ways to promulgate universal joy

00:23:05.300 and expiate stigmatic guilt.

00:23:08.240 Let us teach and touch and delight

00:23:11.820 and show the world that it is loved.

00:23:15.900 Take some advice from the Tampa Bay sisters.

00:23:18.520 Quote, be the reason why someone feels included,

00:23:23.400 welcomed, valued, listened to,

00:23:28.120 supported, and loved.

00:23:31.660 End quote.

00:23:32.260 Our Closing Benediction

00:23:35.720 The Our Bother

00:23:38.420 is an early prayer

00:23:41.180 attributed to Sister Frances Diana

00:23:43.860 of the San Francisco House.

00:23:45.460 It was introduced alongside

00:23:47.500 the sister's original Playfair pamphlet

00:23:50.460 at the 1982 San Francisco

00:23:53.040 Gay Freedom Day Festival

00:23:55.240 as part of the mass in time of war

00:23:57.760 against V.D.

00:23:59.040 Our bother, which plagues our pleasures

00:24:05.440 Horrid be thy shame

00:24:08.040 Your time has come, you're on the run

00:24:11.500 As we cure you now and forever

00:24:14.480 Let us spread affection without infection

00:24:18.440 And let us play fair with others

00:24:21.120 As we would have others come clean with us frequently

00:24:25.740 we lead ourselves into indulgence and deliver ourselves from ill health for ours is the choice

00:24:34.800 the consideration for our contacts and the health care for all as it was in the beginning

00:24:42.840 could be now and soon shall be nookie without drips or itches scabs or scabies herpes hep

00:24:53.340 or guilt

00:24:54.900 Amen 0.99

00:24:57.120 You must be a witch 1.00

00:25:01.500 If you want to support 1.00

00:25:04.140 the Missing Witches Project

00:25:05.200 find out how

Missing Witches - September 25, 2023

MW The Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence： Promulgate Universal Joy And Expiate Stigmatic Guilt

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