Tue 18 May 2010 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Trans-Tasman tranny legend Carmen is back on her wheels as the result of money raised during the Aroha Festival and with additional contributions from her Kiwi friends and supporters. Admitting only to being seventy-something, Carmen, was the mother of all transsexuals in Wellington in the 1960s and 70s. She later moved to Sydney where she worked and mentored young folk in the Kings Cross area. Now elderly and finding getting around difficult she has for several years relied on an increasingly unsafe and unreliable three-wheeler mobility scooter to visit friends and do shopping. Carmen's bright red scooter was a familiar sight in Surry Hills and was a survivor of several Mardi Gras parades. But Carmen is now back riding high on a new ruby red aptly-named Pride Celebrity X mobility scooter, a more stable four-wheel model, thanks to a Kiwi consortium who have added personal donations to money raised at Auckland's Aroha Festival in March. Carmen's 'scooter support group' includes Jacquie Grant, Glenn Sims, Wayne Clark, Mika, Jason Epps-Eades and Julian Cook. The scooter purchase was arranged through Carmen's close Sydney friends, Robin Waerea and Jurgen Hoffman.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 18th May 2010 - 12:46pm