To the general public:
We have remained silent over the past month and a half while a written slur campaign has been launched against us in this forum. We feel this is the work of one individual who did not fit in, has resigned and has threatened us both verbally and in writing. To that end we have legal council working with the CL people on discovery of the i.p. address of the person responsible for the slanderous posts so that we are able to prosecute, but that’s not what this letter is about.
We now feel that it is time to stand up and let you know who we are and what we are about and dispel the ugly rumors that are being spread about us.
First I would like to offer a definition of who we are and what we stand for:
Sisters – Of a family of people
Perpetual – Forever – Occurring continually
Indulgence – Luxury or gratification – It is also a synonym for Charity (bet you didn’t know that)
“We are a 21st century order of queer nuns who vow to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt.” This is our Mission Statement.
Now let me define that for you.
Queer – To be different or apart from.
Nuns – Those who administer to the poor, the sick, & the helpless.
Promulgate – To spread.
I think that most of us can understand the concept of “Universal Joy”.
Expiate – To get rid of.
Stigmatic – A mark of shame or discredit caused by deep religious beliefs.
Guilt – Feelings of culpability especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy.
So now when you put that all together: “We are a chosen family of humans (deserving of equal rights) which go on forever believing in gratification, that are different than the rest, who administer to the helpless, by spreading Universal Joy, and getting rid of that sense of inadequacy that so many gay people are all to accustomed to.”
As Paul Lynde (for those of you that don’t know your gay history very well, he was a TV icon in the 60’s and 70’s who was outwardly flamboyant and best known for his long standing appearance on the Hollywood Squares) once said “Ya, think its easy?” Well it’s not. Being a Sister takes a lot of hard work and extreme dedication not to mention that it takes a big hit on your personal pocket book. None of the monies ever collected goes to pay for costuming or make-up or to foot the bill for “our party” as one CL’er put it on Monday. Each individual is responsible for his/her own habits (costumes) which meet certain guidelines and is responsible for the purchase and upkeep of their own makeup. This is theatrical make up not the five and dime (whoops, showing my age.) Dollar Store make up. It costs upward of $8 per cake and several colors are used to achieve each different “face” that you do. So you see to call us a bunch of jobless bums is not quite accurate at all. In fact very few nuns are jobless. If they are it is because they probably don’t have to work to be able to afford their “indulgences.” We all have homes, cars and all of the trappings of common America and have to get up every day and do what we have to do in order to make ends meet and be able to afford the luxury of being a Sister.
In several posts drugs and alcohol have been bandied about like we are always drunk and on drugs. Fact: A lot of the Palm Springs Sisters are clean and sober, meaning no drugs, no drinks and we highly resent the fact that we are being called a bunch of drunken bums, as for the other Sisters most of them consume a cocktail or two just like the rest of you and call it an evening. It is against our company policy to be drunk and disorderly in public. I can only recall one instance in the past 6 years that this chapter has been in existence when we had someone in face get out of line due to too much to drink. They were reprimanded for it according to our policies and procedures and it has never happened again. One poster complained that at a recent event he saw drunken nuns, one of them performing oral sex and one whose face was a mess. He also went on to say that he knows several nuns from other houses that do not behave like we do. Well, my friend, you tipped your hand when you told us that it was at CCBC at a porn event. It happened to be all Sisters of another house that you hold in such high esteem. Our entire house was busy setting up our 4th Anniversary Gala in the Grand Ballroom of Hotel Zoso during that event which was Desert Romp and busy raising thousands of dollars for AAP and The Golden Rainbow Center that entire day and all evening until Midnight. Some of us ran into the very same nuns that you spoke of sitting at Street Bar later that night and were surprised to see them in town and not at our Anniversary Gala.
We do lots of events at lots of different venues in town. Some of them are providing bar service to raise funds, some of them are bingo’s at bars, and we are the only ones in the entire Coachella Valley that do condom ministry at the bars and at several of the events in town. We are a legal CA state corporation and a federally recognized 501c3 organization that has to follow the guidelines set forth by the IRS and the laws in the State of California. We license every bar, we license our bingo which we hold in Cathedral City because in the city of Palm Springs you can not do bingo (which is governed by the CA Department of Justice and the Gaming Commission) where there is alcohol served. And yes we are fully aware of many “bingo” games being held in bars but they are doing so illegally and without the proper licensing. We have insurance and we pay taxes. This is not a fly by night organization that is willing to sacrifice their principles for wrong doing within our own community. We are totally legitimate and above board in every thing that we do. We have not been banned from any bars or from any other venue anywhere in the history of our house. It’s a matter of fact that several of the local bar & resort owners are very staunch supporters of us and some of them are even Saints and Angels of the organization.
We have personally raised over $40, 000 in the past four years for worthwhile organizations such as the Gay Associated Youth. Without our grants they would not have been able to hold a prom for the valley youth the last two years that they were in existence. Did you get to take your significant other to the prom in the 60’s/70’s/80’s/ or 90’s, we doubt it. It’s a shame to see such worthy organizations as this go under due to lack of funding but without our support that’s what happens. We’ve granted and helped raise thousands of dollars for The Christmas Foundation, a local foundation that sends infected and affected children with HIV to Camp Heartland every year. Some of these children will never see another summer and some of them only get the chance to camp out once in their lifetime. Without our grants two of those children would have missed that privilege. Something that most of the readers of this post take totally for granted. Do you see the food in your cupboard and on your table? Well there are a lot of Gay Seniors that don’t see that, so we started the Golden Rainbow Center’s Food Drive and with help of the DBA maintain that program throughout the valley. We’ve granted tens of thousands of dollars to AAP and DAP for use for their direct client services which is administering to the poor and the sick. We have now started a new program “Cases for Kids” which provides used suit cases for gay youth that are part of the court services foster care system. As these kids, our upcoming generation, are forced to move around from home to home we have provided them a sense of dignity to be able to move their belongings in a suit case (just like you and I) instead of a trash bag. This program is catching on rapidly and other C.A.S.A. workers in Southern California are taking note of what this program is actually providing the children with, because it’s not just a suitcase, it’s some one that gives a damn about them and their situation. We’ve worked tirelessly for Working Wonders and raised funds for them as well as Breast Cancer. So you see we are not just a bunch of drunks out partying in make up and high heels. Some of us wear flats! Oh and did I mention that we are the only organization that does safe sex ministry in the valley??? I thought you might have missed that part when you called us a bunch of HIV positive infectors and that sex is part of our initiation. Some of you should really do some long hard thinking about what you say and put in print. It’s ok to rant about things, we all know that there are plenty of things that in our own opinion aren’t right with the world, but anger, slander and innuendo have no place here. We urge you to spend all of that negative energy and take a few courses in English grammar or perhaps a spelling course or two.
As for all of you whom think that drag queens, leather folk, strippers, cowboys, oh and us too, don’t belong in the gay community we urge you to take some gay history lessons. Because without our differences you would be caught in the same mundane life that most heterosexuals are and that’s not being queer, that’s just a sorry excuse for existing. You would not have the sexual freedoms that are available to you today and you would not be able to sit on the patio of Street Bar or anywhere else for that matter, hold hands with your loved one and discuss all the things that are wrong with the world today over a couple of drinks. You would be shot at by right wing religious zealots that believe that our way of life is wrong, you would still be entering bars in alleys shrouded with secrecy and there certainly would not be a city with gay clothing optional resorts. Can you imagine? I can, as I’m old enough and have fought enough for our freedoms to be who we are and be celebrated and not despised or ridiculed by the general public, and my friends it’s been a long hard battle, but I leave you with this full page advertisement out of the Advocate Newspaper from the early 70’s.
“It’s Dangerous to protest, you can get hassled, jailed, or even killed if you do, but some people, maybe the best, speak out no matter what.”
That’s exactly what we are doing, we the Palm Springs Sisters are trying to help change the world around you by speaking out, helping others, and raising monies for worthwhile charitable organizations just as this entire worldwide organization has been doing for the past 32 years. We’ve been around longer than the HRC and Marriage Equality organizations and we have no intentions of going away any time soon.
This quote was written by one of our members for our fourth anniversary program and we have found this to be true of ourselves with continued selfless acts of kindness.
“In our Charitable works we have to ask ourselves "Is it really worth it?" and time after time when we are putting on our faces we realize something. Because the one life we save with our Safe Sex Ministry, the one person that we make smile when they're having a bad day, the one child that we help understand that it's okay to be who you are, and the one life that we have to do good on this planet makes us know "YES IT IS!"
We hope you agree.
We invite any of our public to attend our general membership meetings to meet the men and women behind the faces and to ask any questions or voice any concerns that you may have about our organization. We also know that some of you will respond to this message with more hate, more ridicule, and more lies. But until you have the balls to stand up and actually sign your name to whatever you believe in it is nothing more to us than just another “rant” and we will not oblige your comments with a response.
Very Sincerely,
Roger Gregg
Aka: Sister Honor Neesalot
Speaking on behalf of the Palm Springs Sisters, Inc.
