Folks were staking out spots early on the lower level of Dolores Park Sunday morning. As the fog burned away, the hills above filled faster than in years past.
By the time the main event started around noon, it felt like all of San Francisco was packed into the park, locked in for one of the city’s wildest — and most meaningful — traditions: Easter in the Park with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Hunky Jesus is how we know it, but it’s also a lot more.
“I am really proud of our theme this year,” Sister Roma told me. “No Easter without the T. It’s to show our solidarity with the trans community, which is under brutal attack right now.”
Since returning to office in 2025, the Trump administration has ramped up efforts to undermine, mischaracterize, and erase the trans community from civic life, military service, and even history.
“The transgender community has been at the forefront of queer liberation,” added Roma. “From the Compton’s Cafeteria riots to Stonewall — there is no LGB without the T.”
So the Sisters used this year’s Easter egg-stravaganza to counter those political attacks with the thing they do best: defiant, joyful protest.
Hosted by Roma, Honey Mahogany, and Alex U Inn, the event featured fiery speeches, including out gay State Senator Scott Wiener, who declared, “I love this event because this represents everything they hate!”
“Rainbow energy is brighter than life itself,” proclaimed Sister Shelita Corndog during the opening prayer. “Free stolen immigrants and all of us who Trump would disappear.” She ended with a directive: “Unleash our joy!”
I live in San Francisco — the cultural heart of the LGBTQ+ community — and maybe my definition of debauchery is a little more forgiving than the average Fox News viewer. But I saw nothing alarming in Dolores Park this Easter. Sure, Easter fell on 4/20 this year, so there was plenty of weed. But overall it was an overwhelming display of community, protest, talent, humor, and pure, unfiltered queer joy.
The Sisters (mostly) put trans performers front and center this year, and the program was fabulous.
Trans soprano Brianna Sinclair sang “Somewhere” from West Side Story.
The Sisters of Asia SF 2.0 — still reeling from losing their longtime SoMa home — rocked the house with a lip sync of “Defying Gravity” by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande from Wicked.
Queer punk icons Pansy Division, fresh off their 1000th show, blasted through some greatest hits and a song called “Bunnies,” performed in bunny ears.
The contests kicked off with Easter Bonnets, where a woman inside a giant vagina beat out more traditional designs. In Foxy Mary, an impressive “Dollar Store Mary” took the win.
And then came Hunky Jesus.
More than a dozen contestants paraded across the stage after 3 p.m., with names like “DOJE Jesus” (Department of Jesus Energy) carrying a cross shaped like a Tesla logo; “Wicked Jesus” in full green; “Jesus with the Good Hair”; “Jesus Crust” carrying a cross made of bread; and crowd favorite “Fuck Donald Trump Jesus,” where Jesus, well, fucked Donald Trump.
At the last second, Sister Roma signaled there was one final contestant. The sunshine caught the glint of something massive: a ten-foot-tall buffalo covered in tiny mirrors, with a man in white waving a rainbow flag atop it.
The crowd went absolutely nuts.
He introduced himself as Cowboy Carter Jesus and gave a short speech. Almost immediately, the hosts declared him the winner of the 2025 Hunky Jesus contest — at least according to the part of the crowd close enough to hear.
My phone buzzed a few minutes later.
“Did they crown a winner?” my friend Jason texted. “We couldn’t tell from back here.”
I texted back: “Cowboy Carter Jesus.”
“Of course he did,” he replied.
His response made me think. On a year devoted to celebrating trans performers, it felt off that a cis white man with an expensive prop — who wasn’t even the crowd favorite — suddenly took the crown. It was a beautiful spectacle, with a heartfelt message, but it missed the mark on representation.
As far as I could see: people of every color, shape, size, background, ethnicity, sexual orientation, relationship style. Adults, children, grandparents, circuit boys, bears, drag queens, preachers, nuns — all gathered under a perfect blue sky to celebrate not some divisive religious rhetoric, but the point of it all: joy.
We gathered, as we do every year, for another glorious, queer Easter with our favorite drag nuns and thousands of our neighbors — to share in unfiltered joy, and to celebrate ourselves and each other.
“If you don’t sin, Jesus died for nothing,” quipped a Sister weaving through the crowd, shaking a donation bucket.
Happy Easter from San Francisco — the queer, sacrilegious, debaucherous, drug-fueled, progressive hellhole we proudly call home.
Christopher J. Beale is an award-winning journalist, media host, producer and audio engineer based in San Francisco. Follow him on Threads, Instagram, X and others: @realchrisjbeale
More photos from Easter in Dolores Park 2025
Photos by Christopher Beale and Saul Sugarman for The Bold Italic.
