WeHo presents key to the city to LA Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

WEST HOLLYWOOD - West Hollywood Mayor Sepi Shyne kicked off LGBTQ Pride Month 202 by presenting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence with a key to the city.

“Tonight is so important,” Mayor Shyne told The Blade. “The sisters were discriminated against, and we all rallied behind them. This jey to the city symbolized the love that we have for each other no matter what. We will always stand together united.”

The Mayor, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath who is a former Mayor of WeHo, along with representatives from the Sisters drag group, Assemblymember Rick Chavez bur, and California State Senator Caroline Menjivar, with Los Angeles LGBT Center Chief Executive Officer Joe Hollendoner, LA Pride President Gerald GarthBoard had attended a meeting with Dodgers President and part-owner Stan Kasten and other stakeholders on Monday, May 22, to work out a solution.

Supervisor Horvath, who had facilitated the meeting, later told the Blade that important dialogue between the Dodgers and other parties had commenced. “I was honestly moved and grateful by the commitment in the room by all the parties, especially Dodgers President and part-owner Stan Kasten,” Horvath said.

Sister Unity, a spokesperson for the drag group, told The Blade that the sisters’ work has never been about accolades.

LGBTQ+ community and in America.

“As drag queens twenty-seven years ago, we knew we weren’t likely to get a lot of accolades. In a community that is already fringe, we were the fringe of the fringe. We are risky. We stick our necks out by being ‘this’ queer. We never expected the amount of support that came to us after what happened with the Dodgers. The fact that we were stood up for by so many members within and without the community marked a big change. They trusted us enough to stand up for us. Drag is now not only accepted at nightclubs. It is accepted politically in boardrooms and meeting rooms in all these prestigious institutions.”

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have been creating positive change since their first appearance in San Francisco on Easter Sunday, 1 7 . Since then, the Sisters have established Orders in places such as London, Paris, Wales, and more. They have devoted themselves to community service, ministry, and outreach to those on the edges and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity, and spiritual enlightenment.

The presentation of the key took place on the Heart Nightclub stage in front of hundreds of invited guests, less than a couple of weeks after The LA Dodgers Major League Baseball franchise apologized for shunning the LA Chapter drag group. After their public apology, the Dodgers offered the sisters the Community Hero Award for their twenty-seven years of service in the community to be presented at LA Dodger ‘Pride Night’ on June 16 at Dodger Stadium.

“Our work has never been about awards,” said Unity. “We love to dress up this way, it’s fun, and the glitter is so pretty. But then, when we saw just how much need there is for our work, how on any given night there are between five and seven thousand unhoused LGBTQ+ children who have been thrown out of their homes, the need for our work fueled us along with our delight in dressing up.”

Unity also shared that the Dodgers incident as well as Shyne’s presentation of the key, marks a cultural shift both in the

The Los Angeles Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence made their debut in Southern California in 1 5 in Diana Ross’s video with RuPaul promulgating joy launching their decades-long commitment to social activism. They work to strengthen community through drag activism by raising much-needed funds for community charities and by bringing about a better understanding of gay spirituality. They also work to unite LGBTQ communities and raise drag awareness among individuals, businesses, and organizations that are often ignorant or even hostile to members of the drag population.

By SIMHA HADDAD