The thing I love about San Francisco is it’s loony interpretation of even the most Middle American of activities. Which is how I ended up playing bingo a few days ago, a game run by men dressed as nuns.
My lovely friend Dinah invited me to Ba Da Bingo, a monthly charitble fundraiser run by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence a charitble and social justice group of, well, nuns in drag. There are a few female members, too, fabulous all the same. Dinah knows a sister in training which is how we got there. And when we weren’t whipping balled up bingo cards at each other, or watching those who mistakenly yell “bingo” when they don’t have it get paddled (yes paddled), or watching Gay Rodeo Cowboys get spanked, Dinah briefed me on the organization.
I was mighty impressed. A non-profit organization for over two decades, the Sisters has been a force of education, social activism and good deeds in this city since the late 1970’s. Last year alone, they sent a dozen students working for social change to college. This bingo game was a fundraiser for a friend of the organization who was getting evicted for having a dog to help him through a work-related injury.
Ba Da Bingo happens just about every month in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco. Check it out. You’ll have the best water cooler story at work tomorrow. I guarentee it.
