They’re an order of nuns with a presence in more than 30 countries around the world. Their calling: to perform acts of charity for those in need, and to fight for social change. They represent, in every way that matters, a model of compassion and moral conviction at work.
Except that they’re mostly gay men wearing makeup, nun’s habits and brassieres on their heads. And some people have a bit of an issue with that.
Say hello to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Part social justice movement, part religious drag act, the Sisters have been doing good works, challenging intolerance and making many people apoplectic for more than 30 years.
After a 25-year absence, the Sisters are putting down new roots in Canada. And now, the glitter and glory of their outrageous life and times is the subject of an original ichannel documentary by award-winning writer/director Kevin O’Keefe.
Bad Habits: The Return of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will have its world premiere public screening — a benefit for the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation – at The Royal theatre in Toronto (608 College Street) on Saturday October 15, starting at 7 pm ET. Members of the Sisters will be in attendance. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.pwatoronto.org/sisters.
ichannel, Canada’s political and social issues network, will present the world television premiere of Bad Habits on Sunday, October 16 at 9 pm ET/PT
Bad Habits was produced for ichannel by Stornoway Communications. Kevin O’Keefe was also the writer/director of Stornoway’s previous documentary production, Milk War, which earned a prestigious 2011 James Beard Foundation Award for best Television Special/Documentary.
Founded in San Francisco in the late 1970s with the goal of serving the community and confronting homophobia, the Sisters combine genuine social activism with a flair for flamboyant theatricality and wicked satire. Born just as the AIDS crisis was dawning, they have been at the forefront of the battle against this disease, promoting safe sex, raising funds for care and treatment, and fighting to counter the stigma experienced by many sufferers.
For all their high-camp trappings, the Sisters consider themselves real nuns with a calling to serve. Many devout Catholics, however, find this potent brew of sexuality, gender and religion impossible to swallow. One Catholic activist in San Francisco, in fact, has taken his opposition to the Sisters all the way to the Vatican. “This is blasphemy,” he tells filmmaker Kevin O’Keefe. “This is evil.”
It’s not just the religious who find the Sisters troubling, either. Their deliberate courting of controversy and outrage has put them at odds with those in the gay community who seek mainstream acceptance. It was just such a conflict, in fact, that led to the disbanding of the Toronto order in 1986.
To some, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence may seem like a relic from a bygone era of radical gay activism. But with HIV infection rates in the gay community up almost 50 percent since the early 1990s, their efforts on behalf of AIDS prevention are, if anything, more relevant than ever.
Last year, the fledgling Abbey of the Long Cedar Canoe was founded in Vancouver: the Sisters’ first Canadian chapter in a quarter-century. Led by Novice Sister Merry Quite Contrary, they have thrown themselves headlong into the great mission of the order: “to promulgate universal joy, expiate stigmatic guilt and serve the community” – which in practice means everything from handing out condoms in bars to providing sleeping bags for the homeless of Vancouver’s impoverished Downtown Eastside.
