Sister Lupita

In name, dress, and antics, the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" are the personification of "theatrical camp". But it's serious business: Wikipedia states that the San Francisco order has raised and distributed over $1million to charities over the years. The first nuns of the order stepped out into public on the streets of San Francisco on Easter Sunday 1979.

According to the website for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Sisters' mission statement states:

The Sisters devote [themselves] to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment. The Sisters believe all people have a right to express their unique joy and beauty and use humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit. The Sisters' state vows to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt while serving their respective communities.

My photo of the sister above was taken at this year's gay pride parade in Long Beach this past Sunday. See this Sister of Perpetual Indulgence in my People and Portraits gallery. And go here for a collection of photos from the 2008 Gay Pride Parade and festival in Long Beach.

P.S. Sr. Iona kindly shared below the identiy of this sister after my original post. The kind sister in this photo is Sr. Lupita from the L.A. Sisters of Pepetutal Indulgence.