When five gay men dressed up in pink habits to perform an "exorcism" at NT Parliament House, they also ended up inspiring a teenage boy who was questioning his sexuality.

Matty Van Roden was 13, going through puberty, when a news story about Darwin's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence came onto his family's television set in May 1992.

"I think there was a little buzz in the lounge room and some grunts from my father who thought it was very improper," Mr Van Roden said.

"A part of me was horrified and a part of me was mesmerised.

"Horrified possibly because I had a suspicion that something about what I was seeing was present within my own being, and mesmerised because of the creative potential."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 54 seconds 54 s Watch the Sisters bless politicians at NT Parliament House in 1992 ( ABC News )

Mr Van Roden grew up in Darwin in a religious family that, while supportive in later years of their son's sexuality, made coming out as gay very difficult.

"It wasn't considered a respectable or proper outcome for a human being," he said.

More broadly at the time in the early '90s, a lack of anti-discrimination legislation in many Australian jurisdictions including the Northern Territory meant life was precarious for many in the queer community.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence helped fight for change in those years by donning bright pink costumes, singing mock psalms and chanting about the "expiration of stigmatic guilt".

'I have no idea why I wasted so much time'

Anti-discrimination legislation passed the NT Parliament five months after the television story in May 1992.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at a May Day Parade in 1992. ( Supplied: Dr Dino Hodge )

However it would take Mr Van Roden much longer to "come out" about the feelings evoked by the sisters.

"It really took until the age of 22 for me to summon the fortitude and the confidence to make a decision that was right for me," he said.

"Every year I felt like, 'oh God'.

"There was two paths and one was the way I'd been brought up and the life I felt I had to pursue that was very much tied up into the life of the church.

"Then there was the other path of everything I desired and feared simultaneously.

"Every year I'd have an existential crisis and that would tend to resolve itself on a Sunday morning at the altar in church repenting for my sinful thoughts and wayward ways.

"For me it now just seems crazy [and] I have no idea why I wasted so much time."

Artwork recognises activism of previous generations

Once into his mid-20s and openly exploring his sexuality as a drag queen performer in Darwin nightclubs, Mr Van Roden met a member of the second chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at a party.

"I had the chance to say 'thank you very much for your activism and the work that you did'," he said.

"The first time they appeared on the TV maybe I didn't really know what [the sisters] were about — campaigning for rights, and my rights to have rights, and to have a place and safe spaces.

"You have a much fuller appreciation of that when you're out in the world, enjoying the things people have previously fought for."

Now an artist and gallery manager, Mr Van Roden decided to create a wax and fine drawing artwork for Darwin Pride Festival 2015 to celebrate the impact of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

The result was an image of a young boy watching television while being watched over by a man in a pink habit — the sisters' leader, Dr Dino Hodge.

"I still feel really overwhelmed that there's this incredibly beautiful painting out there that he made for a wonderful exhibition," Dr Hodge told the ABC last month.

Now almost 25 years after he first watched the sisters "exorcise homophobia", Mr Van Roden said he would still like the opportunity to join their cause.

"I would have no apprehension whatsoever donning a pink habit in the name of the promotion of universal joy and happiness and the expiration of stigmatic guilt," he said.

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