Golden State Today

The head of the American Principles Project (APP) criticized the Los Angeles Dodgers for honoring a group of transvestites who masquerade as Catholic nuns and mock Catholic rites and ceremonies.

"This is unambiguous proof of the Dodgers' real priorities,” APP President Terry Schilling told Golden State Today.  “If the team cared about their fan base, they obviously would not have invited this group to begin with. Very few baseball fans are likely interested in supporting a group of sexual deviants who spend their time insulting Catholics. But in truth, the Dodgers don't care about their fans so much as they do genuflecting to the pieties of our elite class. Mocking Christians is fair game, but it would be unthinkable to offend any member of the sacred LGBTQIA++ class, especially on the eve of the High Holy Month of Pride.”

Golden State Today reported earlier this week that The Dodgers announced they will host the so-called "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," who "have agreed to receive the gratitude" of the team organization during its home game versus the San Francisco Giants on June 16. 

Schilling said Dodgers’ fans should reevaluate their relationship with the team.  

"Baseball enthusiasts should take careful note of how the Dodgers have acted here and perhaps rethink whether it's worth continuing to support a team that holds so many of its own fans in such low regard,” Schilling said.  

The Dodgers had uninvited the group after backlash from Catholic lawmakers like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who said the group mocks the Catholic faith, ESPN reported. The Dodgers said the decision to remove the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” from the Pride Night schedule was due to "the strong feelings of people who have been offended.”  

The transvestite group "Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence" mocked Easter Sunday at Dolores Park in San Francisco, April 9 | Twitter

The Dodgers then re-invited the group after backlash from the LGBT+ community, saying in a statement, “After much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities…the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families.”  

The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles criticized The Dodgers in a statement, saying, "The decision to honor a group that clearly mocks the Catholic faith and makes light of the sincere and holy vocations of our women religious who are an integral part of our Church is what has caused disappointment, concern, anger, and dismay from our Catholic community." 

"Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence" was founded in 1979 in Iowa City, Iowa, just 25 miles south of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the birthplace of Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter. Walter is CEO of privately held global financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, and also part-owner the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and English Premier League soccer club, Chelsea, F.C. 

Walter's bio on The Dodgers website says he is an "investor, conservationist and social-justice advocate." He is a graduate of the Catholic Jesuit Creighton University, and received his law degree from Northwestern University. 

The Los Angeles Times reported that Walter "contributed $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee and $5,000 to Obama for America."

Who are the "Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence"?

---The group was founded in Iowa City, Iowa in 1979, but moved to San Francisco a year later. 

They "began their San Francisco reign... when three bored men donned full, traditional habits of Catholic nuns and walked through the city to a nude beach. The three quickly realized that their prank had the power to both shock and amuse," according to journalist Jessica Lipsky, who wrote that "the group has no affiliation with the Catholic Church and consists of flamboyantly cross-dressing men (and) transgender people."

--- In her book profiling the transvestite group, titled Queer Nuns, author Melissa Wilcox described its members as "a congregation blessed by a dildo dipped in poppers," or drugs that produce chemical vapors inhaled by homosexuals for their "mind-altering effects" and that "cause a euphoria that can reduce inhibitions, increase sexual drive, and intensify the sensations of orgasm," according to the National Institutes of Health.

Wilcox also described "yogurt-filled chalices offered at a funeral to represent the intake of semen" and a “Condom Savior Mass” where "participants vow to use protection."

---In June 1980, the San Francisco Examiner reported on the group's marching in the city's "Gay Freedom Day Parade" that month, describing them as "a dozen men, some bearded, dressed in drag as nuns" and the group's leader as a "reverend mother" named "Sister Solicitation... whose business card has on it a nun with a mustache." 

Also that month, in an article titled, Gays of San Francisco take to street to march in ninth homosexual parade, the United Press International (UPI) wire service wrote of "Sister Flagellation, a gay man in a nun's habit" marching with the group.  

The UPI reported that the "Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence... claimed they were an order of gay male nuns dedicated to "the promulgation of universal joy and the expiation of stigmatic guilt."

---The group's annual San Francisco "Hunky Jesus" contest, in which gay men dress like Jesus and participate in a beauty contest, is judged by  "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" members.

The most recent contest, in April, included a "Jesus and Mary-themed striptease by performers entered under the names Bob Exothermal and Aurora Rose... who met in the Bay Area pole dancing scene."

They won with "a passionate routine that involved Exothermal writhing upside down on a large wooden cross he had built, and Rose performing twists and splits in 10-inch plastic heels."

--- In 1995, the group toured 13 gay bars in order to ridicule the Stations of the Cross, dressing as the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and other biblical women, then shouting their adoration. 

"At the end of the tour, they commune on vanilla wafers and Jägermeister," wrote Fr. Mark Hodges for LifeSiteNews.

--- In 2007, two members of the group attended a Catholic mass and tricked then-San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer into giving them Holy Communion. 

Niederaueur, in apologizing for the incident, wrote that the group "have long made a practice of mocking the Catholic Church in general and religious women in particular."

--- Last month, the group held its annual mocking of Easter Sunday, in San Francisco's Dolores Park. The event's theme was "a bit more risqué than in previous years," said "Sister Tilda," calling it "influenced by musical theater, burlesque, peep shows, vaudeville, drag extravaganza, and some of San Francisco's most notorious memories such as the Lusty Lady venue and The Cockettes."

"You can't say that you've experienced everything San Francisco has to offer if you've never been to the Sisters' Easter celebration at Dolores Park," he told the Bay Area Reporter. "It's like visiting the Louvre Museum in Paris and not seeing the Mona Lisa."