[News/People] [Australia/New Zealand] Memorial service planned for transgender icon Carmen
Stephanie Stevens
Memorial service planned for transgender icon Carmen
AAP | January 17, 2012 2:12PM
[Photo: <http://bit.ly/x8cAgf> Carmen Rupe, one of Sydney's oldest and
best known drag queens. Picture: AFP]
FLAMBOYANT transgender icon Carmen Rupe will be remembered at a
service in Auckland next month.
Carmen, 75, died from kidney failure in Sydney in December last year.
A public memorial service will be held at St Matthew-in-the-City
church on February 11, followed by a celebration of her life at DNA
and Family bars on Karangahape Rd.
One of the organisers of the service, Jordan Harris, says it will give
Carmen's friends and family in New Zealand the chance to say goodbye.
"Many whanau and friends were able to farewell Carmen in Sydney and
this is an opportunity for people in New Zealand to do the same," he
told Stuff.co.nz.
"Some of her close friends from Sydney are coming too and they will be
bringing her portrait which was used at the tangi in Sydney."
Born in Taumarunui in 1935 as Trevor Rupe, it was after a move to
Sydney in the 1950s that Carmen took on the first name that would see
her become an icon and heroine to the gay community.
The entrepreneur and entertainer made an unsuccessful bid for the
Wellington mayoralty in 1977, on a platform promising gay marriage and
legalised prostitution.
Carmen ran Wellington sex venues in the 1970s, where patrons met for
coffee and sexual liaisons at a time when both homosexuality and
prostitution were still illegal.
At her funeral in Sydney, Carmen was credited with paving the way for
social reform.
Carmen was buried at Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery.
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