This Easter, Wish The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence a Happy 30th

On that Holy Saturday in 1979, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were conceived. This Sunday afternoon, they return to their birthplace in Dolores Park to celebrate 30 years of illustrious sistery by drunkenly groping your ass, and maybe your penis too. In case the uninitiated have been wondering all this time why we call her “Sister Roma“… from the “Sistory” section of the Sisters’ official website:

On Easter Weekend [in 1979], during the time of the “Castro Clone,” three men went out into the streets to challenge the world. They went in full, traditional habits through the streets of our city and down to the nude beach. One even carried a machine gun and smoked a cigar. They were met with shock and amazement, but captured everyone’s interest.

The Sisters proceeded to be the first organization, gay or straight, to distribute a safe-sex pamphlet during the onset of the AIDS crisis in San Francisco in 1982, and began helping to organize and train volunteers for the Folsom Street Fair (along with Folsom Street Events) around 1992. They are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that now has approximately 600 nuns spread across houses in Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Paris, Sydney, Berlin, London and Edinburgh, all of which serve, protect, and minister to the gay community through events and programs geared toward sexual health, harm reduction, and, naturally, indulgent behavior.

In honor of 30th Anniversary of the founding of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco is displaying an exhibit of archival photos and objects (opening on Good Friday and including the above mentioned safe-sex pamphlet) and there is a full weekend of celebretory events including the annual Easter Bonnet Contest and Hunky Jesus Contest in Dolores Park, and, around 4 PM, a procession of Sisters from the park to the intersection of Market and Noe Streets, where there will be a dance party and at least 200 fucked up nuns dancing in the street.

Below, a few pics from the last few years.