Frequently Asked Questions

We don’t subscribe to any religious tradition, though our members come from many different religious and spiritual traditions as well as no religious or spiritual background at all.  

We believe in joy, community, love, and radical self-acceptance.    

Over 45 years ago, it started as a response to boredom and the homogeny of the “Castro Clone” look of gay men in the late 1970’s.  With the use of some ‘creatively sourced’ habits that one of our founders in San Francisco had on hand after a production of “The Sound of Music,” four of us took to the streets and found a powerful reaction to the iconography of religious women, particularly because LGBTQ+ community members have often been denied recognition, understanding, and support by traditional religious communities.

Shortly after that first outing, it grew from simple street theater to the start of the global Order of Perpetual Indulgence that we know today, advocating for marginalized peoples (especially LGBTQ+), increasing awareness, raising money for cherished causes, spreading joy, and so much more.  

TL;DR: We use the iconography of the nun because it helps call out the hypocrisy of traditional religious groups with regard to the LGBTQ+ community, and we fill the critical gap of spiritual and religious care for them.  

No. As mentioned earlier, many of our members subscribe to a diverse array of religious traditions even if we as an organization do not.   

That said, we are sacred clowns; we use merriment, irreverence, and humor to inspire thoughtful conversation around traditions and systems of power and oppression that are unnecessary at best and often harmful to people in our communities.   

We do not advocate for mocking religion, but we do use irreverence and humor to unmask the hypocrisy, mean-spiritedness, and ignorance that are often visited upon the LGBTQ+ community by those who consider themselves devoutly religious.  

Our speech or actions may offend at times, but we ask those who take offense to interrogate those feelings and attempt in good faith to understand what the underlying message of the Sisters is and why they are relaying it in the fashion they are.    

It started as a way for one of our founders to maintain anonymity while out in ‘sister mode,’ and continues to help our members in providing a form of anonymity/otherness that makes it easier to for people to feel free to share with us and offer their own form of confession.  

Beyond that, it’s also a great way for each of our members to add to their creative self-expression and it helps to ground us in our traditions as sacred clowns.  

And it doesn’t have to be white!  We’ve had members wear blue faces, green faces, purple faces, and even no makeup at all.  We’re all about each of our members having the opportunity to express themselves and share their ministry in the way that best suits them.  
 

We love to support our community and be social!  Hit us up at webmistress@secondcitysisters.org with the details.  We review requests on a regular basis, just please keep in mind that we are all volunteers and a small community organization.  We can’t be everywhere at once (sadly), so reach out sooner rather than later to give us as much time to plan and RSVP as possible.  

Traditionally Sisters are the prominent public face of our organization, where Guards tend to take on more of a supporting role (the Kevin Costner to our Whitney Houston.)  

Even so, traditions and static roles are meant to be broken, expanded, twisted, and questioned.  All our fully professed members, be they Sisters, Brothers, Guards, etc, have equal rights and we encourage our members to bring their entire, unique selves to their work in spreading joy and serving our communities.  
 

Everyone!! We all need joy and reminders to find the sacred and special in all of us.  

With that in mind, we tend to seek out the people and communities that are kept on the margins of society.  We love the different, the “weird,” the “freaky,” the people who sashay to a different instrument.  

Most people who become members have received their calling because they themselves come from experiencing trauma and oppression, so we therefore seek to help and serve people who have had similar experiences.    
 

Oh it is SUPER FUN and REWARDING!!  Anyone can join us.

But don’t be fooled; becoming a Sister (or Guard, etc) is more than just dressing up and having fun.  It is HARD WORK.   

Like many monastic orders, there is a process to be followed, and ours takes a minimum of a year to complete.  It is designed to help you develop your personal ministry and persona as well as give you the skills to navigate our communities and the Order itself to be able to create successful outcomes and build our Sisterly bond.  

If you feel a calling and are ready for a challenge, please seek us out at one of our events. Spend some time with us, observe what we do, and we can talk more about what it means to be a member.  

You can also message us at vp@secondcitysisters.org and we can start a conversation about membership.