gaycondo

…a Portland original

Sister Paula Nielson is a Portland native who occupies a very difficult cultural space as a transgendered, evangelical Christian. To many people this combination of identities seems impossible, but she makes no apologies about who she is and has been out in the public via her cable access show since 1987. I keep hearing that cable access is in serious jeopardy these days and I think it would be a real shame if it went away. I don’t know about the characters out there in other cities, but here in Portland Sister Paula is one of many interesting people out there addressing the community through this unique and important medium. Even though I don’t subscribe to organized religion I admire the way Sister Paula challenges the established paradigms about what both trans-people and christians look like. Growing up gay in a small, heavily christian community in the South I really admire Sister Paula for carving out a niche for herself in spite of the resistance. With so much of the opposition to queer and trans people’s civil rights being based on a few obscure bible scriptures, we need more people like Sister Paula out there stirring shit up and challenging the christian-haters in their own language. Check out this video where she takes on the “bible-bigots.”