Sisters Bestow Community Grants
By Sister Dana Van Iquity
San Francisco Bay Times, CA
Published: October 2, 2008
http://www.sfbaytimes.com/?sec=article&article_id=9135
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc. held a grants dispersal
ceremony on Sept. 27 at Café Flore. Grants Chairnun Sister Dionna
Cross and Sister Sarah Femme emceed the event, speaking a few
sentences about each beneficiary. The money was raised from
collecting donations at the leather fair gates. Last year The
Sisters raised approximately $100,000, according to Sister Dionna.
This year they gave out over $15,000 to a variety of organizations.
The recipients and their purpose follow here: Holy Order of the
Epicene: a disorganization that facilitates connection, ritual, and
documentation of the spirituality of all people who identify as
living outside of the polarized gender spectrum. At the very heart
of the largest most unique leather event on earth you will find the
women of Folsom Street Fair, frolicking in the tantalizing Venus’
Playground. Women come from all over the world in their corsets and
stilettos, or combat boots, and of course leather. Care Through
Touch Institute considers itself to be one of many vital social
service agencies in the Tenderloin. They strive to work in
collaboration with those who provide food, shelter, and healthcare
to homeless and marginalized people.
San Francisco Women Against Rape provides resources, support,
advocacy, and education to strengthen the work of all individuals
and communities in San Francisco that are responding to, healing
from, and struggling to end sexual violence. SFWAR is a women of
color led, volunteer-based organization that has provided rape
crisis services to survivors of sexual assault for over 30 years.
Wielding thighs of steel and a thirst for competition, the Bay Area
Derby (BAD) Girls are a full contact, all female, flat-track roller
derby league consisting of three teams: The San Francisco ShEvil
Dead, The Oakland Outlaws, and The Richmond Wrecking Belles. The
B.A.D. Girls pursue a mission to provide amateur athletic
entertainment, and to skate competitively on a regional and national
level. The Castro Country Club provides a safe and sober space for
people to meet as an alternative to bars where alcohol is served. In
addition, the club provides a space for regular AA, NA, and CMA
meetings. Openhouse is a nonprofit advocate for LGBT older adults
with housing challenges. They provide support services and actively
advocate for inclusive and nondiscriminatory housing and basic needs
to enable LGBT seniors to live with dignity. Precarious Theatre’s
mission is to produce theatre that has relevance to audiences in the
here and now. They seek to create theatre that attracts newcomers to
the art form, and to create a performance experience that challenges
expectations of what is known as traditional theatre.
Harm Reduction Coalition is a grassroots national advocacy and
capacity-building organization that promotes the health and dignity
of individuals and communities impacted by drug use. This includes
education, HIV, and hepatitis C support. The Derek Silva Community
provides permanent housing for low-income HIV+ individuals with
other disabling physical and or mental health issues. The Sister
grant will contribute to the purchase of healthy food and vitamins.
Family Arts Bridge (FAB) offers a fabulous “FAB Camp,” providing a
residential arts-based family camp experience for families with
LGTBQ members, their friends, and supporters. Groucho: A Queer Loca
is a mixed-race, butch-femme, Latina vaudevillian screwball comedy
play that will be at Theatre Rhinoceros in November. The play seeks
to heal the wounds of racism, transphobia, homophobia, and misogyny
through comedic political satire and the wit of humanity.
Catherine’s House of the Earth Abides Land Trust is dedicated to
charitable services and specifically alleviating the human toll
caused by HIV/AIDS. It has provided a beautiful retreat space and
nourishing environment for over 1000 guests since its inception.
Nomenus, an organization of gay men organized as a religious
nonprofit, exists to create, preserve, and manage places of cultural
and spiritual sanctuary for radical faeries and their friends. The
Sister grant will help them in their vision of eco-sustainability.
The Outlet Program is a youth empowerment program serving LGBTQ
teenagers in Silicon Valley. As the only comprehensive program of
its kind in the area, it has offered support, education, a sense of
community, and served as a roll model for more than 10,000 queer
youth since 1997. The Stanislaus PRIDE center in Modesto is a
nonprofit formed in 2005 to provide resources that support the LGTBQ
in Stanislaus County. The Sister grant will help fund their
counseling program. Realworld Personal Defense is an organization
that was started to help at risk kids in the Bay Area using martial
arts. The Sister grant will help fund their Gargoyle Project, which
offers longer term support and essentially an extended family to
foster children. The Rainbow World Fund is a volunteer humanitarian
service agency based in the LGBTQ community. It works much like the
Red Cross, providing needed assistance, food, medicine, and supplies
to those around the world who suffer from hunger, disease,
oppression, and Republicans. For three decades the Children’s Art
Center has provided a safe environment for children from about 2 to
13 years old to express their creativity as well as develop basic
skills to prepare them for kindergarten and school. The grant will
enable scholarships for those unable to pay out of their pocket.
Free Activist Witchcamp is a gathering of political activists,
witches, and earth lovers that come together yearly to rejuvenate,
connect, and do ritual and healing. The Inter Faith Work Group has a
two part goal of supporting transgender folks in their faith
journeys, while also providing useful resources to help people of
faith to become better educated trans-allies. Camp lavender Hill
offers a week-long summer camp for children ages 9-14 of LGBTQ
families. Its goal is to create a loving, safe, and supportive
environment for children of alternative families.
The next grants distribution will be during Saturnalia, and
organizations are welcomed to apply for funds. Check out
TheSisters.org for information.
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~~~~~
~~Autumn Sandeen~~
- Transgender Advocacy And Services Center Of San Diego Steering
Committee
- Transgendernews News Archivist
~~~~~
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(http://transadvocate.com/autumnsandeen)
~~~~~
The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns
those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore,
brothers.
--Martin Luther King Jr.
