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Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence won't be at Dodgers' Pride Night. Drag nuns are booked

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Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence won't be at Dodgers' Pride Night. Drag nuns are booked

The L.A. Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence won’t be attending Dodgers Pride Night this year. Not in an official capacity anyway.

It’s not a reaction to the events of last year, when the team’s decision to honor the satirical performance and activist organization made up of queer nuns in drag, who are considered blasphemous by some Christians, with its Community Hero Award erupted into a national controversy, leading to a massive protest outside Dodger Stadium and causing concern for the Sisters’ safety.

But it is indirectly related to all of that.

The Sisters simply don’t have time to attend Friday night’s game against the Kansas City Royals. They are completely booked for all of Pride Month this year, something they credit to all the publicity they received a year ago during what founding member Sister Unity refers to as “the Dodgers kerfuffle.”

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“A lot of new groups have come to ask us to appear at their events,” she told The Times in a recent Zoom interview that also included Sister Dominia, the president of the L.A. Sisters’ board of directors, and Sister June Cleavage, the board’s vice president. “It’s just been a whole other layer added on to our usual busy Pride season.”

“Much like a lighthouse, we’re a beacon for weirdos,” Sister June added. “People who get it come to us. And all this situation has done has made that light so much brighter. We’ve reached communities that are having their very first Prides and they want us there to support them. Because they know … they now have Sisters to lean back on.”

Last spring, the Dodgers caused an uproar among religious and other groups when they announced that the L.A. Sisters would be honored as part of the team’s Pride Night festivities — so much so that the Dodgers reversed that decision in mid-May.

But days later, after a marathon meeting that included members of the Sisters’ L.A. leadership, top Dodgers brass, California elected officials and local LGBTQ+ organizations, the team issued a statement offering “our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families” and reinviting the Sisters to receive their award on Pride Night.

In the same statement, the Dodgers wrote: “In the days ahead, we will continue to work with our LGBTQ+ partners to better educate ourselves, find ways to strengthen the ties that bind and use our platform to support all of our fans who make up the diversity of the Dodgers family.”

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Sister Unity and Sister Dominia told The Times that their group has not heard from the Dodgers since the events of last summer. Still, they praised the team for its ongoing efforts to embrace the LGBTQ+ community.

“Pride Night this year is continuing, they’re advertising, the presence in our community seems robust, our community seems engaged,” Sister Unity said. “So we don’t really need to be part of that, like, that doesn’t matter so much to us. What matters is that the Dodgers and the L.A. LGBT community are so together … because that’s what this is really about, that’s why there are gay pride parades at all.

“It’s to shore up people who have been pushed down so that they can participate and their gifts can be shared and appreciated as part of the entire community. This is always about making a diverse, colorful and multivoiced broad community. That’s what L.A. always has been and really always should be.”

The Dodgers declined to comment for this article.

All three sisters agree that the events of last year ended up being a blessing in disguise. While the negative reactions toward the group seem to have receded back to the pre-kerfuffle levels, they said, support remains at an all-time high.

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“Our attackers afforded us for free $3 [million] to $5 million worth of publicity. Gratis!” Sister Unity said. “We could not have paid for what they ended up providing us with just by being in the news cycle.”

The Sisters have received a number of awards in the past year, including two this month from the Highways performance space in Santa Monica and the LGBTQ+ Lawyers Assn. of Los Angeles. Last week, they spoke at a ceremony at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in downtown L.A. The Sisters were also at last year’s Hall of Administration Pride event, which marked the first time a Pride flag flew over an L.A. County building (the flag will fly daily at county offices in June).

The sisters also said that financial contributions to the group — which it divides and distributes to a variety of charities — also increased dramatically following the events of last June.

“I think what it did was it made people more aware that we exist,” Sister Dominia said. “And once people started to realize all the hate we were getting, you know the death threats and everything that came in, the community stood up for us. … Because certain things were said in every single article that were just flat-out wrong — that we’re anti-Christian, that we’re a hate group, we’re this and that. It was all the same and the people that know us are like, ‘No, that’s not who the Sisters are.’”

Sister Unity added: “There’s a level of inclusion now across the board. I observed that this was a cultural revolution in a small sense in America, where the quote-unquote weirdos were all of a sudden not put to the side so that the assimilated-looking people and the suits and ties could speak for us. We were given the microphone. We were put at the spear point of the movement and allowed to represent what is queer, which was different and wonderful.”

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Indy 500: Counting Down The 10 Best Finishes In Race History

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Indy 500: Counting Down The 10 Best Finishes In Race History

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The best Indianapolis 500 finish could be subjective, depending on which driver a fan was rooting for to win.

It certainly is in the eye of the beholder.

So take this list for what it’s worth. One view of the 10 best finishes in Indianapolis 500 history. Of course, it skews to more recent decades when the runs have come a little faster and the finishes have had a tendency to be a little closer.

We’ll add one each day to this list of fantastic finishes ahead of the 110th running of the Indy 500 on May 24 (12:30 p.m. ET on FOX).

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10. Ericsson outduels O’Ward (2022)

After a red flag, Marcus Ericsson held off Pato O’Ward in a two-lap shootout. The shootout didn’t last two laps, though, as there was a crash on the final lap behind them. Ericsson had a comfortable lead when the red flag came out for a crash with four laps to go, a situation where in past Indianapolis 500 races, they likely would have ended the race under caution with Ericsson as the winner.

9. Foyt survives chaos (1967)

How does a driver who wins by two laps end up on this list? It’s because the win nearly didn’t happen on the last lap. A big crash with cars and debris littering the frontstretch just ahead of Foyt as he came to the checkered flag forced him to navigate through the wreckage for the win.

8. Sato can’t catch Franchitti (2012)

This was one of those finishes where the leader holds on for the win, but boy did the leader have to hold on. Takuma Sato tried to pass Dario Franchitti early on the final lap but to no avail and Franchitti sped off for the victory. This was one of those Indy 500s that made you hold your breath all the way to the checkered flag.

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UCLA softball pummels South Carolina to advance to NCAA super regional

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UCLA softball pummels South Carolina to advance to NCAA super regional

No. 8 UCLA stuck with right-hander Taylor Tinsley throughout the Los Angeles Regional and that faith in the senior paid off.

During the Bruins’ NCAA tournament opener at Easton Stadium, Tinsley gave up 10 runs before her teammates rallied for a walk-off win. She returned less than 24 hours to pitch against South Carolina, giving up two earned runs in a victory. Tinsley was back in the circle Sunday afternoon, yielding one run in UCLA’s 15-1 victory over the Gamecocks to advance to the super regionals.

“I am proud of Taylor’s resiliency, the ability to do whatever she can to help this team,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “She got stronger through the weekend. I am proud of that.”

Tinsley and her teammates will host Central Florida in a super regional that begins Friday.

“I feel good,” Tinsley said after pitching three key games in three days. “I could have gone more innings if needed.”

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South Carolina right-hander Jori Heard gave up only one hit through two innings, keeping UCLA’s potent bats relatively quiet. The Gamecocks had runners on first and second with two outs in the second, but Tinsley escaped the inning with a pop-up to left field.

The Bruins got on the board first with a two-run home run from left fielder Rylee Slimp in the third inning. The Bruins followed it up by loading the bases with no outs in the fifth for right fielder Megan Grant.

Grant cooked up a grand slam to make it 6-0. She has 40 home runs, extending her hold on the NCAA single-season home run record. Oklahoma freshman Kendall Wells trails Grant with 37 homers.

“Its just incredible because I am blessed to be able to say the number 40,” Grant said.

South Carolina broke through on an RBI single from left fielder Quincee Lilio to cut UCLA’s lead to 6-1 in the fifth inning after being held to just one hit since the first inning. The Gamecocks couldn’t cash in the rest of the way.

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The Bruins resumed scoring in the sixth inning, with the bases loaded and Grant at bat again. Fans at Easton Stadium anticipated another grand slam, holding up their cellphones hoping to catch some magic. Grant served up a two-run RBI single to expand the lead 8-1.

Jordan Woolery added to the scoring with a two-run RBI double down the left-field line, and Kaniya Bragg hit a home run to left-center field. Soo-jin Berry put a bow on the win with one more home run.

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Pro wrestling star learns what ‘land of opportunity’ means in US as he details journey from Italy to America

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Pro wrestling star learns what ‘land of opportunity’ means in US as he details journey from Italy to America

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Cristiano Argento has been tearing up opponents in the ring for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) as he worked his way up the ladder to get a few shots at some gold.

But the path to get to one of the most prestigious pro wrestling companies in the U.S. was long and a path that not many wrestlers have taken.

Argento was born and raised in Osimo, Italy – a town of about 35,000 people located on the east side of the country closer to the Adriatic Sea. He told Fox News Digital he started training in a ring at a boxing gym before he got started on the independent scene in Italy. He wrestled in Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark before he came to the realization that, to become a professional wrestler, he needed to make his way to the United States.

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Cristiano Argento performs in the National Wrestling Alliance (Instagram)

He first worked his way to Canada to get trained by pro wrestling legend Lance Storm. He moved to Canada, leaving most of his friends and family behind and without a firm grasp on the English language.

“At the time, my English was horrible. I didn’t speak any English at all,” he said. “But I was with my friend, Stefano, he came with me and he translated everything for me. I probably missed 50% of the knowledge that Lance Storm was giving to us because I was unable to understand. I was only given a recap and everything I was able to see. I’m sure if I was doing it now with a proper knowledge of English, it would have been a different scenario.

“Eventually, I moved back to Italy after the training and I said, OK, now, I want to go to the U.S. So, I studied English more properly, and eventually I got my first work visa that was in Texas. I was in Houston for a short period of time. I trained with Booker T at Reality of Wrestling. I got on his show, which was my debut in the U.S. That was awesome. I eventually got a new work visa in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I currently live since 2017. Since then, my wrestling career, thankfully, kept growing, growing, growing and growing until now wrestling for the NWA. One of the bigger promotions in the U.S.”

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Argento said that his family thought he was “nuts” for chasing his pro wrestling dream.

He said they were more concerned about his well-being given that he was half-way around the world without anyone he knew by his side in case something went sideways.

“My family, friends, everybody was like why do you want to move to the opposite side of the world not knowing the language, not knowing anybody, by yourself, to try to become a professional wrestler? And I was like, well, we have one life, I love, and that’s what I’m gonna do,” he told Fox News Digital. “Eventually, my family was really supportive. But when I first said, ‘Hey, mom and dad, I want to do that.’ They looked at me like, ‘Are you nuts? Are you drunk or something? What are you talking about?’ And I said, no that’s what I want to do. And they knew I loved this sport because in Italy I was traveling around Europe, spending time in Canada training, so they started to understand slowly that’s what I want to do with my life. They were proud of me.

Cristiano Argento works out in the gym. (Instagram)

“They’re still proud of me. I think more like the fact that you’re gonna try that, that it’s hard than more like you’re gonna leave us. The fact like, oh, my son is gonna go on the opposite side of the world for a six-hour time difference and we’re gonna see him maybe, when, like, I don’t know. Not often. I think it was more that. And for me too, it was really hard. It was heartbreaking not being able to see my family every day or every month. Like once a year if I’m lucky. I think that was the biggest part for them because of concern or that I was here by myself and if I have any issue or any problem, I didn’t have nobody. So they were scared. Like, you get sick, if you have a problem, anything, and they’re not being able to be here next to me. But they were really supportive since day one.”

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Argento is living out his dream in the U.S. He suggested that the moniker of the U.S. being the “land of opportunity” wasn’t far from what is preached in movies and literature – it was the real thing.

“I was inspired by people who came to the U.S. and made it big,” Argento told Fox News Digital. “The U.S. was always like the land of opportunity. That’s how they sell it to us and this is what it is. I feel like, in myself, that was true because anything I tried to do so far I was able to reach a lot more than if I wasn’t here. I’m not yet where I’d like to be but I see like there’s so many opportunities in this country. Not just in wrestling but like in any business to reach the goal. I’m really happy of the choices I did here.

National Wrestling Alliance star Cristiano Argento poses in Times Square in New York. (Instagram)

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“But my big inspirations were big-time actors who moved to the country, who didn’t know English, with no money, no support system. I had one dream, I have to go right there to make it happen and I’m gonna go and do it and I’m gonna make it happen. So those people were always the biggest inspiration even if it wasn’t in wrestling, just how they handled their passion, how they pursued their dream without being scared of anything, how far you are, how alone by yourself … You don’t know the language, you’re like, let’s go, let’s do it.”

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Outside of the NWA, Argento has performed for the International Wrestling Cartel, Enjoy Wrestling and Exodus Pro Wrestling this year.

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