1990

Artist Thomasina DeMaio approached the Sisters stating that she wanted to create portraits of the nuns in paint and clay. Months and months of hard work culminated in a large art exhibit performance art piece in June, "Angels In Whiteface," that is still being talked about today. The event treated the hundreds present to performances by Doris Fish, Ambisextrous, Sister Vice N Virtue's trapeze act, Sister Psychedelia's rise from the dead, Sistah Boom (a lesbian percussion band) and Pope Dementia's Altered boys, flexing their muscles wearing only thongs and smiles.That October was the first of the Sister's four-year charge of Halloween in the Castro. The Sisters brought safety and focus to the spontaneous party that happened in the tiny neighborhood. They single-handedly produced a show that featured the city's most fabulous performance artists, Mother Theresa Nervina singing a live version of a heart rendering song, a dance stage, and a forum to show off outrageous and elaborate costumery. The small, voluntary donation requested allowed the Sisters to raise thousands of dollars each year to give out as community grants the following spring.

Sisters Vicious PHB, Psychedelia and Sister X traveled to Vancouver, Canada to minister to the athletes at the Gay Games.

This year saw a large outreach to the international communities. Sisters X, Vicious PHB, and Psychedelia went forth into Europe to spread the Word and form Missions. Our visit to Paris resulted in the formation of the first Order by Mother Rita. The Australians sent a missionary to London in August forming the first British Order. Our three Sisters travelled on to Berlin and were present in habit at the Brandenburg Gate the day Germany unified.

 

1991

By June, the Sisters brought the large show/performance art piece, "Dimanche D'Indulge," to Paris to celebrate the investiture of the Paris Order where we delivered our Exequitor officially recognizing them. This was also where "The Condom Saviour Consecration and Vow" first premiered and has been performed many times since.Back home in San Francisco, Sister Roma! introduced her STOP the Violence Campaign in reaction to the rise of violence in the streets, especially hate crimes. A window placard system was devised to mark safe homes to run to in the instance of an attack or the threat of an attack. The Order distributed window signs and whistles in the various neighborhoods and districts of the city as well as on college campuses.

Governor Wilson vetoed the statewide Gay rights bill. The resulting riot at the State Building in San Francisco featured a photo of the back of 2 nuns ramming a barricade thru the glass doors of the building. (Who were they? We'll never tell!)The first German Order in Heidelberg/ Mannheim, Germany was found by Erzmutter Johanna.

 

1992

Sister Sam came out in 92 and wanted YOU! Sisters Bufadora and Flatulina Grande lead the forming of the Queer Army and enlisted the energy of angry people for the Holy Wars against homophobia in the church and the government. Draft cards were distributed and there was no excuse not to enlist. One of the first actions of our pink-camouflaged army was to distribute condoms on USF campus on February 14. The campus had already denied permission for the distribution on the Catholic College campus. Police escorted Sisters off of the campus and held the student collaborators on charges.  The next mobilization was against Rev. Coal and his gospel of hate at the Capitol Christian Center (CCC) in Sacramento, the largest fundamentalist church in the State. CCC was sending members in to The Castro to harass our community on our own turf. Sister Flatulina Grande, having escaped Sacramento just over a year earlier took great offense and organized a visit to CCC on Easter Sunday with the Queer Army in tow in addition to Sacramento activists and Queer Nation. Together we numbered 100 plus demonstrators chanting outside of the CCC’s Easter Morning services, finally drawing security and parishioners from the inner sanctum. While most of the congregation hid behind Bibles and spewed hate, one choir member, a teenager, came and joined the demonstration, outing himself in the process. Sister Lost and Found, as he was later named, came to the Sisters for help after both his church and his family rejected him. Tragically the State of Nebraska forced him back to a foster home despite his wishes to stay with his current gay fathers. He took his own life rather than live in foster care.The Sisters start one of the sexiest alliances by working at the Folsom Street Fair and Up Your Alley Fair helping the organizers by acting as door divas for two of California's largest events and probably the world’s largest fetish events. Folsom Street Fair and Up Your Alley Fair attracts tens of thousands of participants and raises thousands for charity in the process.

 

1993

Sisters attended the Creating Change Conference in Los Angeles demanding the inclusion of Transgender issues and speakers in the March On Washington and Stonewall 25th Anniversary in New York. This is the first time anyone had demanded Transgender inclusion. The 1993 March On Washington officially discouraged drag so we flew to DC in drag and marched in drag with pride. In contrast to the organizers, the crowds couldn’t get enough!

While demonstrating in Washington, DC, orchestrating huge events in our own city, celebrating life and spreading joy, the Sisters also struggled against the pandemic. In rapid succession, the Sisters lost five of their own, which left them in anger and despair. It empowered the order and refocused their fight, so that their 15th anniversary brought new energy and drive to the group. The Children's Halloween was started as a safe space for the kids and continues to this day as a treat for hundreds of kids for gay and not gay parents and their children.

 

1994

Their Halloween celebration was the largest yet, and pushed the limits of control and safety. Out of their dedication to their community, the Sisters joined a coalition of neighborhood groups and Community United Against Violence to come up with a plan to move the celebration out of the Castro. While the coalition itself moved the Halloween fete to the Civic Center area the Sisters insisted on having a proper celebration, HallowQueen, a wonderful costume-mandatory dance/cabaret which raised over $6,000 for a handful of charities.Sisters attend Stonewall 25th Anniversary in New York City and help lead the Drag March from Alphabet City to the Stonewall Inn. Favorite chants: "2-5-6-7 we're tough dykes and we don't have to rhyme" and "the Pope wears a dress and so will I ".

 

1995

For the first time, the Sisters bless the San Francisco Mime Troupe opening-day free performance in Dolores Park on the July 4th (US Independence Day) weekend. Showing a broader range of community service, the Sisters put on W.H.O.O.T.Y. (We'll Hold Our Own Thank-You) benefiting the Women and Cancer Walk. In support of alternatives to western-medicine the Sisters assisted in putting together La KLUBSTiTUTA alá Oasis that raised the first legal $1,000 for SF Proposition 215 legalizing medical marijuana. The event featured the Virgin Queen contest and marked the first of many collaborations with Diet Popstitute and KLUBSTiTUTE.On a darker note, the Sister Sock Show makes its debut as an alternative Sister presence at events that aren't community benefits yet still have performance value and possibilities. The Sister Sock Show quickly gains a reputation for projectiles, forced audience participation and poorly executed narrative. Sister Phyllis Stein the Fragrant braves the bicyclist world and starts the tradition of Sisters in the California AIDS Ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles raising thousands of dollars in the process. The Sisters of Perpetual indulgence, Los Angeles mission is successfully launched under Sister GladAss of the Joyous Reserectum's guidance.

 

1996

Now, in a time where there are more than twenty convents worldwide, the Sisters create and have brought to Washington, DC four quilt panels, 24' by 24', commemorating over thirty "Nuns of the Above" as part of the Names Project Quilt. We know that there are more Sisters whose names have escaped us as much as their lives escaped them, but their energy and love live on through us.Sisters attended, for the first time, the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert and served Oh! Communion with medicinal brownies and tequila to parched and needy pagans. They also performed and passed out safer sex materials and set up a prayer shrine. The Sisters become a founding sponsor and outreach assisters for the CCP, Community Center Project in a multi-year project.

 

1997

Renewing a commitment to queer youth, The Sisters start several supportive activities for LYRIC's (Young Loud and Proud conferences) they put on aprons and act as lunch ladies bring smiles (and VERY LOUD DISCO MUSIC) to help start their day of activist organizing. They also helped put on PROMSTiTUTE, an alternative queer youth prom where the youth were encouraged to wear very short skirts and drink to excess. The Sisters also help at several AIDS art auctions as dotters, runners, wrappers and display models (please note: no artwork was dropped).August brought the tragic death of Princess Diana and the Sisters were called by the community to add focus to the grief that not only paralyzed London but was felt around the world. The Queen of Hearts Memorial went from the Castro to the British Embassy and, again, several thousand for the Princess' charities was raised. Several Sisters (most notably Sister Dana Van Iquity with the program) had served on the SF Pride Parade Committee, but this year the Sisters actually won "Most Outrageous Float" when Sister Kitty Catalyst was inspired to use the excess left-over trimmings from all the other floats to decorate the Sisters vehicle.In other tragi-comic news Sister Hellen Wheels, Sister Dana and Sister Kitty performed for one of the many Imperial Court functions "The Out of Town Court Show" and won, but didn't even remember they had attended and performed at the event (ahem) until reminded several weeks later. The House Of The Sheila Na Gigged (Cardiff, Wales) formed.

 

1998

For the first time the Sisters officially organize the annual Pink Saturday event in the Castro, the Saturday night hotspot before the San Francisco Pride Parade, ensuring monies raised stay in the community. Each year has seen more money going to local beneficiaries. Also that year Sisters organize Wig Out, a wig drive collecting from San Francisco drag queens hundreds of new and reconditioned wigs for women under-going chemotherapy."We are not amusing" becomes internal code language for the James Hormel scandal as President Clinton moves to make history and appoint him as the first openly gay United States Ambassador (to a very Catholic Luxembourg). The Sisters pass by in the annual SF Pride Parade when he apparently chuckled at our antics. Spam on James! Make-a-Wish Make-a-Dish, a queer youth holidaze dance was held at the Eureka Valley Recreation center and featured Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo much to the delight of all the queer youth present.

 

1999

The Sisters celebrate 20 years of good-spirited activism with an Easter Birthday party fundraiser in the Castro, while looking forward to another twenty years of community service. The local Archdiocese condemns the order thus granting us an estimated $1 million in free publicity. Play Fair! is re-issued and updated after 20 years to be all gender inclusive, encourage folks to use safer sex techniques, get tested for sexually transmitted diseases and lose the guilt.Later that summer the Sisters visit Reno, Nevada, for the first Reno Pride Parade and, again, are condemned. The Governor of Nevada refuses to issue a proclamation in support of Transgenders, Bisexuals, Lesbians and Gays so the Sisters write their own. The celebration receives front-page press as well as coverage from every television news channel in the city. Together with Survive AIDS, the Sisters take the lead in organizing the annual AIDS Candlelight Vigil making a big splash on SF City Hall steps. People with AIDS are honored with remembrances, AIDS Hero Awards and performances from the cast from RENT, Dear Diva, Dirty Little Showtunes as well as drummers and U.S. Representative Nanci Pelosi.The Sisters hostess several benefits at the Power Exchange sex club and Castlebar S&M space raising sex positive spirits and lots of needed money for local charities. Our 20th Anniversary was heralded with an International Conclave and related archival exhibit "A Consistory Conspiracy: Changing the Face of Activism (1979-1999)" which featured mementos and ephemera from the past twenty years complete with several fundraising receptions including, of course, Butt Plug Bingo!