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SPEAKER_01: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. We're celebrating Pride Month with icons, supreme queens of queer culture. Some are household names. Others are a little more behind the scenes. All have defied social norms that influence generations of people to be unapologetically themselves. Today we're talking about an iconic drag queen from New Zealand, an icon who is a fan of drag. A woman from New Zealand, an activist, a performer, a would-be politician, and above all, a barrier breaker for the queer community. Let's talk about Carmen Rupp. Carmen was born on October 10th, 1936 in the rural community of Waimiha in New Zealand. She was one of 13 kids born to Elsie Wilson. From a young age, Carmen knew her identity did not fit into the confines of the gender assigned to her at birth. She grew up dressing in her grandmother's clothes and performed hula in a dress at a local celebration. Throughout Carmen's childhood, her mother Elsie was a fountain of support and helped Carmen find her identity. When she was 15 years old, Carmen left school. She entered the queer scene of New Zealand and started socializing with drag queens. Soon after, she was enlisted into compulsory military service. It was there that Carmen started her drag career, entertaining and performing for other soldiers. After moving to Auckland to work as a nurse, Carmen began dressing in traditionally feminine clothes full-time and entered sex work. She also worked as a dancer performing hula, belly dancing, and mime. She dubbed herself Carmen in honor of the silver screen icon Carmen Miranda. In the early 1960s, Carmen was arrested on her way home from a show under the charge of behaving in an offensive manner in a public space. In layman's terms, the cop didn't like that she was dressed in women's clothes while having a male sex marker on her legal documents. But when she was brought in front of a judge, they ruled it was not illegal for men to wear women's clothes. But that simple ruling, Carmen's case opened doors for trans folks across New Zealand to dress however they wanted without fearing legal repercussions. Later on, Carmen became likely one of the first people to have a passport with a dash under the sex marker rather than an M or an F. In 1967, she opened Carmen's International Coffee Lounge, a late night cafe whose second floor functioned as a sex venue. The interior was decked out in plush rugs and velvet curtains, decorated with faux antiques and turquoise fish tanks. From 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., patrons could get tea, coffee, sodas, pastries, and more. Customers would identify their sexual preferences by how they arranged their teacups and saucers on their tables. Carmen presided over it all, always made up with big hair and striking makeup. She kept her employees safe from police and clients and hired folks from the queer community to work in different areas of the establishment. The cafe grew to be so popular, Carmen was able to open up other coffee lounges across New Zealand. She even opened a nightclub called The Balcony, which offered an incredible spectrum and spectacle of nightly shows. Carmen was also well-known to those outside of the LGBTQ plus community for her outspoken and unapologetic nature. In one 1975 TV interview, she sparked outrage after saying she knew at least one member of parliament was homosexual and others were bisexual. Lawmakers were so outraged, they ordered her to appear before parliament. She did and met the media dressed glamorously all in black. Just a few months later, she dressed in just a fur stole of the Trenton races, only to remove it and appear topless. A photo of her scandalous look made the rounds on the front page of the Sunday papers. Carmen always used her public persona to support the community she cared for. She did public talks for charity, judged the Miss New Zealand Drag Show, and in one instance, ran for mayor. Her slogan was get in behind, and her platform included legalizing sex work, abortions, homosexuality and nude beaches. While Carmen never became mayor, all of her roles in the press were to be public. all of her reforms were eventually instated in New Zealand. In 1979, the lease of the balcony ended. After hosting a huge farewell ball, Carmen decided to close her business and move to Sydney. She continued to make occasional guest appearances at clubs and was a venerated matriarch of the LGBTQ plus community. In 1996, she became a Diva Hall of Fame recipient and in 2003 received a New Zealand Hero Lifetime Achievement Award. Carmen died of kidney failure in Sydney on December 15, 2011. She was 75 years old. Today, if you travel to Wellington, you can see an image of Carmen transformed into the pedestrian crossing lights on Cuba Street. Her legacy lives on. All month we're talking about icons. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow!
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SPEAKER_06: New episode airs Sunday, September 24th on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
