“The ‘sisters’ are men who dress in lewd imitation of Roman Catholic nuns,” Rubio said. “The group’s motto, ‘go and sin some more,’ is a perversion of Jesus’s command to ‘go, and sin no more.’” Rubio, who seems to know quite a bit about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (but that’s none of my business) added, “Do you believe that the Los Angeles Dodgers are being ‘inclusive and welcoming to everyone’ by giving an award to a group of gay and transgender drag performers that intentionally mocks and degrades Christians — and not only Christians, but nuns, who devote their lives to serving others?”

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have a long history of activism aimed toward helping people living with HIV, including some of the world’s first fundraisers for people who were unable to work due to their illness, and even distributed one of the earliest safe-sex pamphlets, according to NBC. 

Dodgers president Stan Kasten told LGBTQ+ sports outlet Outsports that the organization had been a bit hasty in revoking the Sisters’ invitation. “We moved too quickly,” Kasten told Outsports. “Since then we’ve had the opportunity to do a lot more talking, a lot more reading and most importantly a lot more listening.”

Just as their initial invitation sparked right-wing backlash, the decision to revoke the honor reverberated throughout the LGBTQ+ community, which is continuing to deal with an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and anti-drag sentiment. In 2022, LGBTQ+ advocacy organization GLAAD counted at least 124 anti-drag attacks in the U.S., many of them occurring in the second half of the year as protests against the art form caught fire among Republicans, fueled especially by social media accounts such as Libs of TikTok, which began to label drag performances as lewd, sexual and aimed at sexualizing or “grooming” children. 

That sentiment has led to actual repercussions in some statehouses. Tennessee passed the first modern drag ban of its kind in February, though a federal judge later blocked the ban just as it was set to take effect. Earlier this month, the Montana state legislature, which has shown that it has no qualms silencing its LGBTQ+ members, advanced a particularly vague drag ban that Governor Greg Gianforte signed on Monday, according to a legislative tracker. 

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