Iconic New Zealand Drag Queen And Gay Activist Carmen Dies, Australian Catholic Bishops Overturns “Quite Wrong” Decision To Refuse To Enrol Daughter Of Lesbian Couple, Australian Openly Gay Finance Minster Wong And Her Partner Welcome Baby Girl, Danish Soccer Sex Anders Lindegaard Locker Room Photograph, Danny Care

Iconic New Zealand drag queen Carmen has died at 75. The one-time stripper, gay rights advocate and former Wellington mayoral candidate had suffered months of poor heath and finally succumbed to kidney failure. "Even as recently as Monday night she was lucid and coherent and had a strong will to live," her close friend and guardian Jurgen Hoosma told GayNZ.com. Hoosma said since suffering a fall earlier this year she had been down. "She had put on some weight but overall her health has been in a downward spiral throughout the year," Hoosma said. New Zealand's first transgender MP, Georgina Beyer, said Carmen's "warmth and aroha'' always shone through. The Dominion Post reports that she died very early this morning at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, in the company of friends who had been keeping a bedside vigil for several days. Carmen was born into a family of 13 in Taumarunui and was known as Trevor Rupe for about the first 20 years of her life. She entered the sex industry in Australia after leaving the army in the 1950s. She took the name Carmen from Dorothy Dandridge's character in the movie Carmen Jones. Returning to New Zealand in the late 1960s, Carmen became an entrepreneur, opening several businesses in Wellington. Of those, the most famous was Carmen's International Coffee Lounge, a "flamboyant space" festooned with avant-garde European art, mirrors, and tropical fish. Although homosexuality was illegal, various types of sexual liaison were available. Patrons arranged their coffee cups in particular ways to indicate whether they were after a heterosexual, gay, transsexual, or drag queen encounter. Should a police raid occur, an elaborate system of doors and stairways provided discreet escape routes. "We had a secret door so you'd never know who was going up there, " she said in a 2001 interview. "We had plenty of famous people but I'm terrible with names - although I always remember sizes." When she ran for mayor in 1977, Carmen campaigned for hotel bars to be open till midnight or even 2:00 am; the drinking age to be lowered to 18; prostitution to be made legal; abortion to be decriminalized; homosexual acts to be decriminalized; sex education in schools for 14-year-olds; and nudity on some beaches - all of which are now legal. "I enjoyed doing the campaign. I had Bob Jones help me. I haven't seen him in years. He's probably better looking than me now," she said in a 2009 interview with the Dominion Post. Carmen lived out her final years in Sydney, returning home to Wellington in 2009 for what's believed to be the last time. She will be buried at Sydney's Rookwood Maori Cemetery.

In Australia, a bishop has intervened to overturn a Catholic primary school's decision to refuse to enrol a lesbian couple's daughter. The couple, who do not want to be identified, had tried to enrol their child at Sacred Heart Primary School at Broken Hill in far western New South Wales. According to ABC News, they say the principal told them their relationship was the reason the application had been turned down. The acting bishop for the Wilcannia-Forbes diocese, Kevin Manning, says he is appalled by that decision. "There's no way in the world one can penalise a child for what his or her parents do," he said. "To penalise a five year old child because her parents are living in a homosexual relationship is just quite wrong and I've been in touch with both the school principal and also the parish priests." He says a place at the school for 2012 has now been extended to the girl. The school's original decision was panned by a same-sex lobby group and the Greens, who had urged the State Government to intervene. State Greens MP John Kaye said the school receives 85-percent of its funding from the public.

Australian Finance Minister Penny Wong has picked up a whole new challenge, but this one had nothing to do with a cabinet reshuffle or a budget. The Herald Sun reports that just a week after Ms Wong drove a hard-fought change to the ALP's platform on same sex marriage, her partner Sophie Allouache has given birth to a healthy baby girl. A beaming if mildly stressed Senator Wong said the birth was a life-changing experience, adding, "She's wonderful, just wonderful." Baby Alexandra, who was given Ms Allouache's middle name, was born at 8:00 am on Sunday at Adelaide's Women's and Children's Hospital. She arrived before her due date but not without a protracted labour that began on Saturday. "They're both well," Senator Wong reported of mother and child, adding that "Sophie was pretty tired but she's much better now.” The tiny addition, conceived using IVF and sperm from a donor known to the couple but who will not be identified, weighed in at a very respectable 3.23kg or 7.1 pounds. "Sophie and I are delighted beyond words, she's just beautiful," Senator Wong said. "Like all new parents know, there's nothing like this." The high-profile but intensely private Senator Wong said she now planned to take "plenty of time off" to get to know her daughter. She said she had "texted" Julia Gillard the good news and the Prime Minister had responded that she was delighted, adding, "The PM's given me a bit of leave so I'm going to take time off and hopefully we can get the important things in life like feeding and nappy changing and sleeping under control." While she expected a high degree of public and media interest, she said her main pre-occupation now was "nappies and feeds.”

Danish soccer star Anders Lindegaard in the locker room clad solely in teeny, tight, black briefs – yes, please! (Sort of NSFW)

24-year-old British rugby star Danny Care.