Farewell Carmen Rupe
LGBT community icon Carmen Rupe has died aged 75 in Sydney this morning, surrounded by friends and loved ones who had been keeping a bedside vigil for days.
Born in 1935 as Trevor Rupe in Taumarunui, New Zealand into a family of 13, the colourful one-time nightclub owner and madam succumbed to kidney failure at St Vincent’s Hospital after months of poor health following a fall and hip surgery earlier this year, GayNZ.com reports.
New Zealand MP Georgina Beyer, the world's first transsexual Member of Parliament, fought to contain tears this morning after hearing of her long time friend’s passing.
“I looked up to her,” Beyer told GayNZ.com.
“I have such huge respect for her. She provided us with visibility. She was so warm, so affectionate, with a great sense of maoritanga.”
Carmen arrived in Sydney’s Kings Cross in 1958 following a stint in the New Zealand Army at a time when Abe Saffron was making his name as the city’s king of vice.
It was during this period that she took on the name Carmen from Dorothy Dandridge's character in the movie Carmen Jones and began her drag career as a female impersonator doing belly dancing as well as dancing with snakes.
Carmen would also later work with Carlotta’s world famous Les Girls troupe as well as become a regular performer at Sydney’s first gay bar, the Purple Onion.
She returned to her New Zealand homeland in the 1960s where she transformed herself into one of Wellington’s most famous bar owners with the establishment of Carmen's International Coffee Lounge.
The venue not only provided a much needed meeting place for the local LGBT community but also seconded as a place where relations could be bedded upstairs.
Although homosexuality was illegal in New Zealand at the time, patrons would arrange coffee cups in particular ways to suggest whether they were after a heterosexual, gay, transgender, or drag queen encounter, Stuff.co.nz reports.
Carmen would later set up the Balcony strip club before running for mayor in 1977 on the platform of decriminalising homosexuality, legalising abortion and prostitution, and introducing sex education classes for teenagers; all of which have since been adopted into New Zealand law.
Carmen came back to Sydney in 1979, eventually becoming one of the city’s greatly loved and adored senior citizens, with Kings Cross and Darlinghurst locals not surprised to see her glamourously buzzing by on her bright red scooter in later years, or as part of Sydney's gay and lesbian Mardi Gras celebrations.
Close friend Jurgen Hoosma told GayNZ.com that the much loved entrepreneur and activist was still active and alert until her final hours.
“Even as recently as Monday night she was lucid and coherent and had a strong will to live," Hoosma said.
“She had put on some weight but overall her health has been in a downward spiral throughout the year.”
GayNZ.com reports that Carmen will be buried at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.
Did you know Carmen? Share your stories, memories and thoughts below.
- Tags: Carmen Rupe, Community, Culture, Darlinghurst, Death, Drag Queen, Gay icon, Georgina Beyer, Kings Cross, Les Girls, LGBT, New Zealand, St Vincent's Hospital, SX, Sydney, Transgender
About the Author
Serkan Ozturk
Serkan Ozturk became a journalist after failing as a minor poet. Known amongst some circles as the ‘Van Wilder of the High Arts’ it took Serkan almost a decade of studying at three of Sydney’s major universities before finally attaining a single, much vaunted Communication degree from that bastion of Brutalist architecture – the University of Technology, Sydney.
When not being investigated by the NSW Police Commissioner for crimes against satire, Serkan can be found on his bike or generally looking for the next big story.
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Comments (6)
To think that amazing hair fantastic colorful clothes and caustic wit are gone from
The world. A true loss
Rest in Peace Carmen. Thank you..
a true pioneer and groundbreaker for trans-people every where, we owe carmen a tremendous debt.
Rest In Peace Carmen xxxxx
What Carmen achieved in one life time many of us don't achieve in ten.
Sexworker rights, Gay rights, Transgender rights- she contributed to them all.
May Carmen's activist spirit continue to live in all of us. Erica Red
A tranny with a brain who put it to great use. Gave Sydney an extra blast of colour, outrageous dress and a dazzling smile. We will all miss seeing her around the Darlinghurst/ Surry Hills area. What an enormous loss particularly to the GLBT community. Just loved ya darl.
Rest in Peace. I hope in the next life you can turn up the heat in hell on the catholic monstrosity that gave us Adolph hitler, the hate of the Jews, and WWII and 55 million deaths.
The church that claims to support life created the worst of historys mass murders.
Read mein Kampf and you will see how it all happened and how the church is repsonsible