Expiate stigmatic guilt

Not long ago if it was revealed an athlete was gay all the product endorsements (where the real money is) dried up. Not that any athlete in the big male sports of football, basketball, baseball, and hockey would do such a thing (for lots of reasons) while still an active player. An example is Martina Navratilova, famous tennis star and lesbian. I've heard her income was considerably less than that of her colleagues.

Times have changed. Nike has announced that they want as an endorser the first gay athlete in the big sports. This could be worth millions. Various people are hinting that Nike isn't the only one looking at the opportunities for a "marketing goldmine."



It was on this date in 1979 that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were founded, as Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin reports in his Daily Agenda. The Sisters started off as a bit of street theater in San Francisco. The men dressed in nun's habits "to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt," as their mission statement put it.

But just a couple years later the AIDS crisis hit. The Sisters became one of the earliest AIDS charities. They sill bring meals to those who can't care for themselves and fund alternative proms for LGBT youth, among other things. The organization has gone national and international.

And through it all, they continue to be the favorite targets of many religious-right organizations, many of whom still show scant evidence of performing the charitable work that the Sisters do. Ironic, isn’t it?

A look at their website is worth it just for the banner photo. But it also shows they're quite an organization.