Rusty Mae Moore

Rusty Mae Moore was an American transgender rights activist and educator. 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.

Biography

Moore was born on October 25, 1941, in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and she grew up in nearby Aliquippa. 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.