Dodgers v perpetual indulgence
Nobody disinvites the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
LA Pride has pulled out of an annual Pride Night hosted by the Dodgers after the team disinvited a non-profit drag group from the event.
Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Dodgers rescinded an invitation to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a well-known San Francisco order of queer and trans ‘nuns’ that has existed since the 1970s, amid opposition from conservative Catholics. The group, which does does charitable and protest work in addition to its street drag show performances, was set to receive an award during a ceremony before a 16 June game against the San Francisco Giants.
Conservative Catholics can go soak their heads. The Catholic church is an evil institution that has done harm to vast numbers of people over the past couple of millennia. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence? Not so much.
The controversy took off when Senator Marco Rubio, who[m] the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign has described as “one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ politicians in America”, wrote to the MLB commissioner earlier this week criticizing the team’s decision to honor the order, which he claims mocks Christians. Leaders of conservative Catholic groups also contacted the MLB arguing that it was “rewarding anti-Catholicism”.
So? Anti-Catholicism exists for good reasons.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence first appeared in San Francisco in 1979 in the Castro District in the form of three men wearing nun outfits. The group formed in response to the Aids crisis and was among the first to raise money to help care for people with the disease, it said in a statement. Today they fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for underserved grassroots organizations, which in 2020 included grants to legal aid clinics serving LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and an alliance empowering deaf queer people, among others.
The group’s mission statement says the non-profit is devoted “to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment”.
“We use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit,” according to the group’s website.
Humor and irreverent wit as opposed to endless genuflection to luxury identities. Long may they wear the rosary beads.
I don’t remember any talk of their being trans Sisters when they were formed in the 1970s, but I guess that this is a side issue in this case.
The Catholic interpretation is incorrect, isn’t? They aren’t mocking Christians, they are mocking the Catholic Church, which denied the gays that were being beaten and bashed, and lay dying of Karposi’s Sarcoma, the sanctity of Grace. Believe it or not, many lesbians and gays remain Catholic despite the Church’s insistence that they be celibate in order to to remain in grace. And it’s largely because gay and lesbian sex is not procreative.
That’s it. That’s the sin. (Of course, rape of children is non-procreative, but priests are a protected class.)
It does seem like a side issue in this case to me, I suppose because being one of the Sisters entails a sense of humor in place of the usual mix of self-pitying melodrama and entitlement.
Maybe what was camp in the 70s morphed into what’s called trans now? Like the Nathan Lane character in The Birdcage, and Priscilla in Priscilla Queen of the Desert. They weren’t called trans then but would be now?
I don’t recall any major Pride organization protesting that lesbian groups were kicked out of Pride events over disagreement with gender ideology. Nor over attacks on Fred Sargent and various other people at Pride events over the years. I could have missed it, easily, but I don’t recall. I agree it’s totally wrong to defer to the Catholic Church in this instance, and I agree with LA Pride’s action, but I’m disappointed if this is the only hill they’ve chosen to defend.
Same. I’m more hating on the church than linking arms with Pride.
I read something about this yesterday. There was some concern that Hispanics would be insulted. About half the population of Los Angeles is Hispanic, and (quick Google) about 70% of them are Catholic.
I don’t know how many of them would actually be offended by the Sisters’ shenanigans, but that probably figured in the Dodger Poobahs’ calculations.
Slight correction #2, and a common error. Priscilla is the name of the bus.
Mitzi Del Bra and Felicia Jollygoodfellow are the Drag Queens, while Bernadette Bassenger is the transvestite.
Ah, it’s been a looooong time since I saw it. I meant the Terence Stamp character, who actually wanted to be a woman. (Didn’t he?)
Huh. Wikipedia says the Terence Stamp character was a trans woman. I think I thought he was a drag queen too but with extra added sincerity.
I wouldn’t trust Wikipedia on that point. The site has had many modifications in favor of gender ideology in the last few years. However, Roger Ebert refers to Bernadette as an aging transsexual, so I’d consider that supporting evidence.
Terrence Stamp played the character of a transsexual exceptionally well.
The best gag of the whole movie was Terrence Stamp wanting Bill Hunter cast as “Bob”, who falls for Bernadette. Bill Hunter has made his career playing the typical gruff macho Aussie male.