Vale Carmen Rupe

Vale Carmen Rupe

**UPDATE**
Carmen Rupe is to lie in state at the Te Wairua Rapu Church at 587 Elizabeth Street, Redfern tomorrow, Sunday and Monday from 1pm until 5pm.

Her service is at 12.30pm Tuesday, December 20 before leaving for Rookwood Cemetery (Maori section) for an arrival at 2.30pm.
**

Transgender icon Carmen Rupe has died in Sydney aged 75.

Rupe, who had a fall earlier in the year and suffered ill health ever since, succumbed to kidney failure early this morning at St Vincent’s Hospital.

Friends had been keeping a bedside vigil for several days.

The New Zealand-born drag performer was as well known in her homeland as in Australia. She opened businesses including cafes, nightclubs and brothels in Wellington that were unique for being openly gay and welcoming to all in the community.

The Les Girls performer was also credited as being the first Maori drag queen in the ’50s.

DIVA Awards Committee chair Greg Steele told the Star Observer her death would be widely felt by both the organisation and the wider community.

“She was a Hall of Fame winner for DIVA from 1996 and she was certainly larger than life,” Steele said.

“She had costumes and hair higher than heaven and the personality to match.

“If there was a call for drag queens to be somewhere and lend a hand, she was the first to put hers up. She rarely said no.”

In 2008 a topless Rupe led the Decade of the Divas float at the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras aboard a mobility scooter.

The National LGBTI Health Alliance added their voice to the tributes, calling Rupe an icon respected on both sides of the Tasman for her varied career and as a pioneering transgender personality.

“We recognise Carmen Rupe as an elder of our LGBTI communities, and an outstanding pioneer and advocate of LGBTI rights,” Alliance board member Peter Hyndal said.

“We know that the adverse health outcomes experienced by so many LGBTI people, and especially trans people, are a result of the stress that comes from living as part of a group that is stigmatised and discriminated against. Carmen and others of her generation have helped to transform our societies and create opportunities for those of us who follow.

“We are indebted to her and will ensure her contributions continue to be recognised and valued.”

GayNZ reports Rupe is likely to be buried in Sydney’s Rookwood Maori Cemetery.

You May Also Like

19 responses to “Vale Carmen Rupe”

  1. Vale Carmen. Sadly missed. As a young gay guy coming out in the late fifties and early sixties. you were always helpful. Never more so than when I had to undergo Electric Aversion Therapy as a result of being arrested for being gay
    I will always be grateful for your inspiration. xoxo

  2. Carmen was such a wonderful personality, a great friend, and a very much loved member of our little community here in Surry Hills.
    Her humour, wit, and kindly advice will be sadly missed, but never forgotten.
    What a Lady, and what an inspiration…
    Rest easy Princess.

  3. Carmen certainly was a leader of the 2008 Dr Mark’s Marching Academy parade entry Divas thru the Decades but she did not ride a mobility scooter in the parade. She proudly walked the entire parade route topless. In those days, she found a place as a transgender person in what was known as the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade.

  4. A true pioneer and icon. Kind, warm and funny, a fantastic dash of colour in an increasingly grey world. Ka kite ano Carmen, you will be missed, but you will never be forgotten.

  5. Carmen brought such Joy to our lives, both on and off stage. Even in her final years, she helped raise the profile of older trans* people and the issues faced in ageing and aged care.

    Many of her friends and fans will miss her and I will be one of them.

    Thankyou Carmen, not for anything in particular, just for being your wonderful fabulous self and sharing that so freely with the world…

  6. Truely uneducated headline from the Herald Sun referring to Carmen as a Drag Queen – surely in this day and age, any journalist would know the difference between drag queen and a transgender person?

  7. A wonderful personality with a logic beyond words, kind and considerate ,great company .fair well and thanks for the memory.