The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were founded in San Francisco in 1979. William was an original member. The first meeting of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence took place in William’s apartment and he designed their first logo for a huge banner in an early march (see below). He helped us create our original name and mission statement . "We are an order of gay male nuns dedicated to the promulgation of universal joy and expiation of stigmatic guilt". This mission statement is used by SPI houses worldwide. William also created our logo, which is calligraphic white letters on a black background (Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence). The above photo of the original members includes William (first person right of center with a mustache). 

— SINcerely, Sister Vish=Knew, a Founder of SPI.

Sister SoamiMish is the custodian of the original banner. She says, “ I assumed that role in ‘82 when I found it after it disappeared at the Castro Street Fair. I was away from SF on that occasion. Shortly after William was commissioned to make a replacement which he did with subtle  calligraphic differences and on a heavier synthetic black fabric. 

Later I figured out to seek out where our Fair booth— a retooling of our Freedom Day float with wood gothic arches and copious yards of black satin fabric—ended up. Sr Chanel, who designed both float and booth, suggested I  find the warehouse of Neighborhood Arts used for materials storage. So I did and found the original banner in the heaps of black fabric. 

Since the SF House and Sr Vish had the second banner I took the original with me in early ’84 when I moved from SF. 

It’s that replacement banner that was also later lost, probably in 1986 at a photo shoot at Lands End with Jean Baptist Carhaix. My surmise is it also got tangled in all the folds of black satin material they used and ended up stored in a SF Neighborhood Arts warehouse south of market or wherever they put it then.”

—Sister Soami Deluxe