Transgender goddess and glbt community icon Carmen Rupe has died in Sydney, aged 75, from kidney failure following months of poor health.
Carmen had suffered a fall and subsequently underwent hip surgery earlier this year but never retained her vigour after a series of return visits to hospital. "Even as recently as Monday night she was lucid and coherent and had a strong will to live," says close friend and guardian Jurgen Hoosma, to the media. But since her fall her mood and outlook had been adversely affected. "She had put on some weight but overall her health has been in a downward spiral throughout the year,".
She died just under an hour ago at St. Vincent's Hospital, in the company of friends who have been keeping a bedside vigil for several days. With Carmen at the end were Hoosma's partner Robin Waerea plus two other of her closest friends, Diego and Kelley.
The word 'icon' does not quite encompass New Zealand's most-loved tranny, who over her 75 years achieved everything from belly dancing with a snake in Kings Cross to running for Mayor of Wellington.
