GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) will honor the Boston Chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at its annual Summer Party in Provincetown on July 30th. Originally posted on 6/17/16
The Sisters are a “leading edge order of (clown) queer nuns…[who] have devoted ourselves to community service, ministry, and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment.”
“We’re thrilled to honor a group whose values we share and who have done so much for GLAD,” said Janson Wu, GLAD’s executive director. Since 2010 the Boston Sisters have supported GLAD at its annual Summer Party, volunteering to act as hosts and greeters, assist celebrity auctioneer Kate Clinton, and pose endlessly for photos.
“Every time I go to the Summer Party it reminds me how lucky I am to be here in New England and to have GLAD as a resource, and that the rest of the community has GLAD,” Sister Lida Christ said. “It is fuel for my year. When I am in the darkness of winter I look forward to the Summer Party and the people I will see there.”
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence got their start in San Francisco in 1979; the Boston order launched in 2009 when founding members Sisters Eunice X and KrisTall Mighty moved across the country and started laying groundwork for The Boston Sisters Convent of the Commonwealth.
The Boston Sisters spend an average of 20 hours per month – though often it’s as many as 60 – helping raise money for organizations within the LGBTQ community, (such as the AGLY network, GLAD and Fenway Health), and beyond the LGBTQ community, such as Camp Lightbulb, the Soup Kitchen of Provincetown (SKIP) and Children’s Hospital. The Sisters join the parents of the Hurley School, a bilingual Boston K-8 school, in raising funds each year.
Most of the Sisters describe their continued participation as a calling. “Some of us call it the Nunsense – once you know how to see the public you know what is happening and who needs help, wherever you are. The nun does not leave you.”
GLAD’s 35th annual Summer Party will take place Saturday, July 30 in Provincetown. We’re thrilled this year to be honoring the Boston Order of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for the amazing work they do throughout the greater Boston community.
Tickets and more information are available at www.glad.org/events.
Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders works in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation.
