Last Sunday, in the parking lot of Dallas’s Cathedral of Hope, Regent Empress Penny Cilyn put the finishing touches on her hair and jewelry in the rearview mirror of her car. In a blue sequined gown, her red hair curly and Dolly Parton full, she was preparing to represent the United Court of the Lone Star Empire, a charitable organization serving the LGBTQ+ community.
Meanwhile, from the edge of the parking lot, homophobic vitriol: “Anyone check the weather today?!” a protester yelled into his megaphone. “’Cause it might rain fire and brimstone on this church and burn every homo inside!”
A dozen or so Catholic protesters holding rosaries and signs stood near the church’s entrance, chanting one Hail Mary after another. One played a bagpipe. In lighthearted counterprotest, a trickle of churchgoers paused to dance and flap their rainbow fans.
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All because of what the Cathedral of Hope was about to do.
It might surprise non-Texans to learn that the Cathedral of Hope, which has 4,000 members, lays claim to being the world’s largest LGBTQ+-friendly church. Sunday morning, it stirred up a hullabaloo by holding a special Pride service to bless members of the drag community, in direct resistance to Texas’s Senate Bill 12 — passed in May but blocked by a federal court — which seeks to restrict “sexually oriented performances on public property, on the premises of a commercial enterprise, or in the presence of a child.”
Follow this authorKaren Attiah's opinionsAlso on hand to be blessed: Dallas members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a decades-old, national charitable organization of rainbow-rosary-carrying queer and trans nuns who offer aid to LGBTQ+ people.
Cathedral of Hope members advised me to keep a distance from the protesters. I approached them anyway.
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Cesar Franco, of the Catholic activist group Tradition, Family, and Property, had driven up from Houston and was leading the protest chants on the street. “We support all efforts that are peaceful and legal to turn back the tide on this abomination, which is taking place in this country, which is exposing children to drag culture, homosexual sin,” he told me. “And we repudiate with all of our soul the mockery of our Catholic faith.”
As I walked into the service, I saw armed security guards patrolling the perimeter. FBI agents and Dallas police officers were also present — a reminder of the threats that have been made against both the LGBTQ+ community and Texas churches that have welcomed LGBTQ+ congregants. Members of Cathedral of Hope told me they had been on edge because a church in nearby Plano was firebombed in July after an anti-LGBTQ+ YouTuber posted a video featuring the church. (The YouTuber has denied involvement.)
During the service, the Rev. Dr. Neil G. Thomas preached about using Pride Month to reclaim family values. “Drag is not a crime,” he said. The audience applauded.
The Sisters and members of the Court of the Lone Star Empire received Communion. Some wiped away tears from their eyes. An offering was taken up for the Drag Defense Fund. Even though SB12 is held up in court, I was told that some venues had already decided to shut down their drag brunches and performances, cutting off a source of income for performers.
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This is why places of worship are important centers of resistance. They are political, legal and spiritual testing grounds, where people can and likely will confront one another over the spiritual direction of this country.
At the service, children took Communion in the presence of the drag queens. I asked Thomas whether this meant the church was in violation of the proposed law. He said he didn’t know.
“My kid was here,” Thomas said. “I don’t have the right to choose to bring my kid to church when there are drag queens?”
I decided to take a theological question to Franco, the Catholic protester. Drag queens have been around for decades, I said. I grew up watching men dressing as women on TV and in the movies. Why the outrage now?
“We have always had times when mankind fell into moral depravity, and God called people back,” Franco said. “So we are at a moment when Americans are starting to wake up.”
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Another theological question, this one for Thomas — who, as a reverend, should know: What is a nun? Aren’t they more than just clothing and rosary beads? Members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence say they believe in the rights and humanity of all people, including LGBTQ+ people — so why can’t they have nuns?
“The Catholic Church does not have a monopoly on nuns,” Thomas said. “These sisters were at the bedsides of men dying of AIDS. … They bring humor, they bring activism, they provide and bring a level of spirituality that many of us have had taken away from us. Despite the humor, they take their spiritual work very seriously.”
This is the heart of the matter. To uplift is serious spiritual work. But to oppress is as well. Those who pass bills such as SB12, and who direct insults and violence at LGBTQ+ people, are doing the dark spiritual labor of denying people their humanity, their expression, their safety and security.
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Sunday was a lesson in how to remain compassionate — and glamorous — in the face of oppression. The Sisters told me that despite the attacks, they were not deterred from doing their spiritual work. The rest of us shouldn’t be, either.
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