Sister Paula Nielsen
Sister Paula, America's foremost transgendered evangelist, was born Larry Nielsen in 1938 in Portland, Oregon. As a high school student in 1952, young Larry was riveted by the story of Christine Jorgensen, the first male to female transsexual. Along with his fascination with Jorgensen, Larry knew that he desperately wanted to assume a female identity. After high school, Nielsen spent a few years working as Larry and then at night would sneak out in female garb. Shortly thereafter, Larry adopted the name Paula after the popular song, Hey, Hey Paula.
While living in San Francisco in 1963, Larry legally changed his name to Paula and began living full time in a female identity. In order to avoid arrest for open transvestivism, she was forced to carry a letter with her from noted sexologist Dr. Harry Benjamin explaining that she was a transsexual. After a move to southern California, Paula was employed as a legal secretary in a downtown Los Angeles law firm and was ACTIVE in Angelus Temple, a Pentecostal church founded by Aimee Semple McPherson and the headquarters of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Still hiding the fact that she was transgendered, it was in 1969 that Paula first attended the predominantly gay and lesbian Melrose Avenue Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), pastored by church's founder, Reverend Troy Perry. Even though she was still "in the closet" regarding her transgendered identity, Paula went forward that day to receive communion and states that "the presence of God was there in a powerful and profound way" and that during communion she "started speaking in tongues". Although Paula did not return to the Melrose Avenue MCC before moving back to Portland, Oregon in the 1970s, she later became involved with Portland MCC, serving (among other things) as church secretary.
Starting in the early 1980s, Paula began performing a regular nightclub act at the legendary drag club, Darcelle XV in downtown Portland. During her off-hours, Paula studied for a ministerial correspondence-course and in 1987 she began her career as "the world's first trans-evangelist," with her own public access cable television program. Comedian Fred Willard selected Paula in 1991 for a comedy special AbOUT off-beat public access programs across America. This appearance led to a series of television appearances including the Joan Rivers Show, The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn, and "Saturday Night Clive" for the BBC. The "Sister Paula Show" has also been seen on cable access stations in Seattle and Los Angeles.
In February 2005, Paula survived a massive heart attack. Her website and podcast premiered in 2006 and continues along with her cable television program. The video podcast of her program premiered on her website and iTunes in June, 2007. She is currently at work on an autobiography and a documentary about her life is in production.
External links
References
Robert DuPree, "Drag City, U.S.A." NorthWest Fountain November, 1981
Michael A. Lipton, "Way Beyond Wayne's World", People Magazine March 16, 1992
Eva Hunter, "Maverick Ministry", The Oregonian, Friday November 12, 1993
David Lipin, "Drag Evangelist Unveils on Local Public Access Television", West Hollywood Independent, Wednesday, September 4, 1996
Dale Brasel, "Cable Ready", Detour Magazine, March 1998
A Curious and Peculiar People : A History of the Metropolitan Community Church-Portland and Oregon’s GLBT community by David Grant Kohl Release Date: February 2006 QPress, Portland, Oregon