The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

While working on a photography project, called person/persona, about people creating alter egos and the personal empowerment of costuming, I came across a magazine article about The Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a costumed “modern order of queer nuns”. The Sisters are a charity, and a street performance and protest organization that utilize drag and religious imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirize issues of gender and morality. The order was founded in 1979 by a small group of gay men in San Francisco and their choice of nun costuming was meant as high camp to draw attention to societal conflicts.

I contacted the Boston convent and as a result Sister KrisTall Mighty became a subject in my persona project. For a year now I have photographed the full Boston order of Sisters. They have graciously accepted me into their lives as a friend, chronicler and witness to their ministry. I admire how they move through the world, braver than I will ever be in public. Because of the difficulty of fitting all of that beauty, yards of fabric, false eyelashes, seven inch platform shoes and a variety of tall head dress into a cab, and because meeting people while spreading their words of tolerance, acceptance and safe-sex is a part of their ministry, they walk to most of their destinations. I watch the faces on the sidewalks of Boston as the crowd parts like the crossing of the Red Sea. People freeze, vacillating between inquisitiveness and hesitancy. Children look happily wide-eyed at the smiling waving ‘clown’ nuns­. Most everyone gets caught up in the good humor and warm smiles, as they pose for pictures with the Sisters, raising their camera phones high.

There are 2000 Sisters worldwide with 11 in the Boston area. Members of the order include men, women, and transgender people, although the majority of Sisters are gay men. The ministry believes that people should be encouraged to live their lives in any way that brings them the most satisfaction and joy, without guilt or shame, so long as they do harm to no one. The five aspects of their practice include service, education, activism, entertainment, and ministry.

The makeover process is somewhat magical to watch and photograph. I enjoy the joking and easy conversation while watching the hour-long transformation into the roles that each Sister has designed. After the last stroke of makeup is applied, each Sister emerges unwavering, leaving behind no semblance of their other self.

The Sisters’ underlying philosophical practice is one of pure non-judgmentalism—something I hope for in my life and as a wish for the world—and indeed, in their world I feel accepted, looked after, encouraged and often hopeful.