BREAKING
JD Vance stood on a stage in Kansas and called a 47-year-old volunteer charity of queer and trans nuns a "devil-worshipping" "anti-Christian hate group."On September 14, at a rally staged by the pro-Trump group MAGA Inc. at Webco Manufacturing in Olathe, Kansas, Vance told the crowd that Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton "proudly supported a drag group called Our Ladies of Perpetual Indulgence."
No organization by that name exists.
He meant the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, founded in San Francisco in 1979, whose members were among the first people handing out safer-sex and HIV information during the AIDS crisis.
Vance also said the group had been "saying special blessings before L.A. Dodgers games." That never happened. The Dodgers gave the Los Angeles order its Community Hero Award before Pride Night on June 16, 2023, for charity work.
Sister Roma, of the group's San Francisco order, answered him directly. "I do not recognize or accept his inflammatory misrepresentation of who we are and what we do," she said. "We do not mock nuns, we are nuns." She described Sisters serving meals to hungry people and sitting with the unhoused and the ostracized.
The reason Vance went after Adam Hamilton at all: Hamilton's church, Resurrection, was one of dozens of sponsors of Kansas City PrideFest.
Vance told the room Hamilton is "a guy who would insult your faith and spit on your religion to accrue donations to himself."
Hamilton is the founding pastor of the largest United Methodist church in the country.
His bishop, David Wilson of the Great Plains Conference, called the attack "inaccurate and unwarranted" and listed what the congregation has actually done: more than 10 million pounds of food given to people in need, 800,000 backpacks of food so kids don't go hungry on weekends, more than 65,000 pints of blood donated, and more than $26 million handed to outside groups serving children and families.
If you appreciate Gay News, it would mean the world if you followed my page. Thank you for being here.
