Dodgers Pride Night drama can’t stop this sister act
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, May 26.
There’s no crying in baseball, as the saying goes. But there’s been plenty of emotions swirling over the Dodgers’ upcoming Pride Night game in the last week.
By now you’ve probably seen the many headlines, but just to recap:
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — an LGBTQ+ charity group whose members don habits and other nun attire as part of their drag outfits — were set to be honored with the Community Heroes Award at the Dodgers’ 10th annual Pride Night on June 16.
Some conservative Catholic groups began to voice outrage, arguing the Sisters’ attire was anti-Catholic and the group was mocking their religion. The outcry ramped up with a call-in campaign led by CatholicVote, a group that describes itself as “a community of patriotic Americans who believe that the timeless truths of the Catholic faith are good for America.” Their vibe is less “turn the other cheek” and more “set the world on fire.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also chimed in, writing to MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred to blast the Dodgers and the Sisters, saying the group “mocks Christians through diabolical parodies of our faith” and that “baseball has always been tied to our nation’s values, at the heart of which is faith in God.”
Last Wednesday, the Dodgers announced the Sisters had been disinvited from the Pride Night game, citing “the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the Sisters’ inclusion in our evening.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups called out the Dodgers, saying they’d pull out of the Pride Night game. The Los Angeles LGBT Center told the team to either invite the Sisters or cancel Pride Night entirely.
Within a week, the Dodgers reversed course, apologizing to the Sisters and inviting them back to Pride Night to accept the award, which they agreed to do.
Lost in the swirl of outrage was an understanding of the Sisters and their decades of work. Times reporter Deborah Netburn writes about faith, spirituality and joy for The Times and spent an evening with the Sisters to get their stories and reaction to the big-league backlash.
“The Sisters are used to attracting attention, but many acknowledge that the recent whiplash has taken an emotional toll,” Deborah wrote.
Sister Tootie Toot said the Dodgers’ initial snub brought up painful person memories.
“My initial reaction was here we go again — same old, same old,” she said. “As mostly queer and gay people, we’re used to disappointment and things being taken from us. A lot of us have experienced that with our families and friends and communities.”
The order was founded in San Francisco in 1979 as an irreverent joke by three gay men, but the group quickly pivoted to help their community when the AIDS crisis struck, holding the first fundraisers for AIDS organizations and distributing the first safer-sex pamphlet.
The Sisters’ mission, as explained on their website: “We make people happy, stamp out guilt brought on by a judgmental society and help various organizations and charities.”
For the Sisters, their volunteer work (the group gives any money they raise to charity) is a calling. They take issue with being labeled anti-Catholic. “We appreciate nuns, and we’re doing it our own way, for our community,” Sister Harlot D Lite told Deborah.
Sister Candy Cide of the Immaculate Misconception described the way the group’s power resonated when she first saw them at an L.A. Pride event.
“I was still feeling the guilt that I was going to let my parents down because of who I was,” she said. “When I found out the message of the Sisters was about removing stigmatic guilt and repairing people’s joy, I was like, ‘I need to do that for myself, and I need to do it for other people too.’ ”
Becoming a Sister is a process that can take 18 months or more, with multiple stages of initiation.
“To graduate to full-fledged Sister, each novice must complete a project, such as producing an event or organizing a safe-sex campaign,” Deborah explained. “One sSster wrote a cookbook and gave the proceeds to an AIDS organization. Another organized a Sister story time at an LGBTQ+ space in Torrance, where Sisters read to kids in English and Spanish.”
Before the Dodgers’ re-invitation, the Sisters were invited to join Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken at the Angels’ Pride Night game, which they accepted.
As for the Dodgers, the Sisters heard their confession and opted for forgiveness.
“We believe the apology is sincere because the Dodgers have worked for 10 years with our community and as well they have asked us to continue an ongoing relationship with them,” the group wrote in a statement.
They also bestowed their own blessing on the ball club and its devotees:
May the games be blessed!
May the players be blessed!
May the fans be blessed!
May the beer and hot dogs flow forth in tasty abundance!
And now, here’s what’s happening across California:
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L.A. STORIES
When city officials’ grand unveiling of a “First-of-its-Kind Bus Stop Shade Structure” last week turned out to be a porous sheet of metal fastened to a sidewalk pole, social media denizens were quick to create some shade of their own. But as Times columnist Carolina A. Miranda writes, the dunking on L.A. obscures the underlying issue: “How we can make public transportation more friendly to women.” Los Angeles Times
A beloved South L.A. plant shop is being forced to move to make way for new development in West Adams. Plant Chica’s owners are looking for a new plot to put down roots, but the fate of the business — which some view as a “safe space” for Black and brown queer people — is in limbo. Los Angeles Times
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
What does a mysterious company want with a desert ghost town? The once bustling iron mine in Riverside County was sold in April for $22.6 million, but the Cerritos-based LLC that purchased it isn’t talking. Los Angeles Times
California regulators are setting their sights on cash app companies, which offer payday advances and are disproportionately used by women. But reporters with the Fuller Project write that the businesses “operate in a legal gray area that allows them to function much like a payday lender but without the consumer-protection rules that govern those businesses.” Los Angeles Times
CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING
San Bernardino County’s child services department is being sued in federal court, five months after a grand jury deemed the agency “too broken to fix.” The lawsuit, filed on behalf of more than 5,800 kids, claims the agency failed to protect kids and sometimes put them in danger. Los Angeles Times
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HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Beware: this litter of mountain lion kittens found in Thousand Oaks are so ferociously cute, you might not survive an encounter. The three females, now dubbed P-113, P-114 and P-115 by National Park Service biologists, were discovered in the Simi Hills. They’re the latest felines to be part of the NPS’ 20-year study of cougars in the region. Los Angeles Times
California has become the first state to ban hexavalent chromium, a toxic substance used by chrome plating companies to give those shiny parts on classic cars, aerospace components and plumbing fixtures their shine. Known better as chromium 6, the substance is 500 times more more carcinogenic than diesel exhaust. The California Air Resources Board voted to phase out its use, giving smaller businesses until 2030 and larger plants until 2039. Los Angeles Times
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AND FINALLY
Today’s California landmark is from Megan Parker of Los Angeles: Palos Verdes cliffs.
Megan writes:
Palos Verdes cliffs are a dream! The neighborhoods and views of the coast are one of a kind. California is one of the most beautiful places in the world once you actually explore this great state.
What are California’s essential landmarks? Fill out this form to send us your photos of a special spot in California — natural or human-made. Tell us why it’s interesting and what makes it a symbol of life in the Golden State. Please be sure to include only photos taken directly by you. Your submission could be featured in a future edition of the newsletter.
Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
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