A Tranny, A Clown, and A Nun Walk Into A Bar

Picture it, the Castro district of San Francisco, 1979…

A troop of overly dramatic and particularly bored queer gentlemen are sitting in their living room wondering what to do with themselves on the Easter long weekend. Gazing at some nun’s habits they had borrowed for a Sound of Music production it dawns on them that putting the habits and parading through the streets might raise enough eyebrows to satiate their need to alleviate boredom. What they didn’t expect was that it would be a psychological explosion that would turn into a worldwide organization 30 years later.

That’s how the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were born. As this sorority began to grow though they realized they had a visual power to draw attention to matters of social injustices that existed around them. When the AIDS crisis began to explode on the scene it was the Sisters who held the first AIDS benefit before that acronym had even been coined. They developed the first fun safe sex pamphlet before any others had. They raised money for local charities and for matters that were of international importance.

Through the use of irreverent wit the Sisters have been shaping societal consciousness since their inception. The visual appearance was a direct hit to traditional, and often bigoted, concepts of gender, sexuality, and religious intolerance. The work and mission of these queer nuns began to move through the continent and indeed the world the way glitter seems to spread like herpes.

This inspiration for spiritual community, social justice, and consciousness raising has come to Edmonton. The Abbey of the Festival City Sisters is an Aspirant chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (meaning we’re well on our way to formally marrying ourselves to the greater organization). Each of us is concerned with different aspects of ministry (also known as spiritual service). For some entertainment and merriment in the pursuit of bringing joy to others is their primary focus; for others bringing awareness to issues of social justice is their primary passion. Still for others the engagement in a silent yet visual ministry that strikes at ignorance and bigotry as it relates to sexuality, gender, and religious intolerance is what drives their work within the Abbey. We bring spiritual enlightment in everything that we do - not that people realize what our idea of enlightenment is but that their consciousness opens a little bit more and they think differently.

As a whole we work together to raise funds for local charities. Our Condom Communion is part of our harm reduction campaign that seeks to work towards zero new transmissions of HIV and AIDS (did you know that new HIV transmissions are popping up like wildfire among the queer community in Edmonton AGAIN?). We also work to alleviate poverty among LGBTTQI youth that are homeless in the Edmonton area.

Our ministries play out in different ways: from handing out condoms at bars to hosting shows that raise money for good causes to street theatre that seeks to raise awareness. In all our work can be summed up as FUN raising, FUND raising, and CONSCIOUSNESS raising.

The vows are real, the ministry is real, and the blisters from our heels are real.

We are not the Court. The court is a beautiful social organization that raises money for amazing causes. We are a spiritual order of queer nuns – a family of sisters. We work together for justice, we laugh together, we cry together, we work towards a spiritual causes together, and we seek to develop our own inner-meanings together. Yes, we cross-dress! Yes, we raise money for charities. But we are very different from the court.  

We are not drag queens nor are we ‘wanna be’ drag queens as some have snidely commented under breath. We wear a habit to represent the spiritual vows we have taken to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt. We paint our faces the way people do at pow-wow as a power symbol reflecting our medicine – in many ways to reflect the beauty we see in ourselves and our community. We cross-dress as a means of challenging traditional concepts of gender. But drag queens are a mystical and beautiful being unto themselves.

Watch out Edmonton – here comes your spiritual and psychological mindfuck!

Love,
Sissy Fister
Reverend Mother of the Abbey of the Festival City Sisters Society