Rusty Mae Moore
{{Short description|American transgender rights activist and educator (1941–2022)}}
Rusty Mae Moore (October 25, 1941 – February 23, 2022) was an American transgender rights activist and educator.{{Cite news |last=Carmel |first=Julia |date=2022-03-11 |title=Rusty Mae Moore, Transgender Educator and Activist, Dies at 80 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/nyregion/rusty-mae-moore-dead.html |access-date=2022-04-17 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/03/activist-rusty-mae-moore-died-spent-life-providing-shelter-trans-people-need/|title=Activist Rusty Mae Moore has died. She spent her life providing shelter to trans people in need.|first=Erin|last=Rook|website=LGBTQ Nation|date=14 March 2022 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.newsday.com/long-island/obituaries/transgender-activist-hofstra-transy-house-brooklyn-obituary-rusty-mae-moore-1.50538495|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318030350/https://www.newsday.com/long-island/obituaries/transgender-activist-hofstra-transy-house-brooklyn-obituary-rusty-mae-moore-1.50538495 |archive-date=March 18, 2022 |title=Rusty Mae Moore, transgender activist and longtime Hofstra educator, has died|work=Newsday }} She ran a de facto homeless shelter for transgender people in the 1990s and 2000s, known as the Transy House. One such resident was Sylvia Rivera, one of the most prominent voices in trans and queer activism, who lived at Transy House until her death in 2002. {{Cite news |last=Baum |first=Sarah Emily |title=Trans Revolutionary and Ex Hofstra Dean, Rusty Mae Moore, Passes Away at 80 |language=en-US |work=The Hofstra Clocktower | url=https://www.thehofstraclocktower.com/news/trans-revolutionary-and-ex-hofstra-dean-rusty-mae-moore-passes-away-at-80 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220313095707/https://www.thehofstraclocktower.com/news/trans-revolutionary-and-ex-hofstra-dean-rusty-mae-moore-passes-away-at-80 |archive-date=March 13, 2022}}
Biography
Moore was born on October 25, 1941, in Sewickley, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh), and she grew up in nearby Aliquippa.{{Cite web |last=Singh |first=Mankirat |title=Who was Rusty Mae Moore and what was her cause of death? Transgender Educator and Activist dead at 80 |url=https://getindianews.com/who-was-rusty-mae-moore-and-what-was-her-cause-of-death-transgender-educator-and-activist-dead-at-80/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406212339/https://getindianews.com/who-was-rusty-mae-moore-and-what-was-her-cause-of-death-transgender-educator-and-activist-dead-at-80/ |archive-date=April 6, 2023 |access-date=2022-04-17 |website=getindianews.com |date=12 March 2022 |language=en-US}} In 1963, she married Nancy Voigt, and in 1970 they had a daughter, Jonica Melanie Moore, in São Paulo, Brazil; the couple later divorced. In 1978, Moore married Sara Lee Zug; that same year they had a daughter, Amanda Lee Zug Moore, and in 1983 a son, Colin McGeorge Zug-Moore. Moore and Zug separated then divorced in the early 1990s; she subsequently came out as transgender to her family. Moore then entered into a relationship with Chelsea Goodwin, and they married in 2018.
Moore died as a result of cardiovascular complications due to advanced Alzheimer's disease on February 23, 2022, in Pine Hill, New York.