After Stonewall, Rusty Rose worked for years as a nurse at the notorious Central Islip Psychiatric Center in New York. Her nursing and singing careers were cut short when a homophobic patient attacked her so brutally, it took her years to recover. Rusty has since become an international activist, having helped to secure rights for LGBTQ+ people living in UN High Commissioner for Refugees camps in Kenya and South Sudan. She works independently, not as a member of any specific group. Under her literary name, Rita B. Rose, she has served as Poet Laureate of the Long Island LGBTQ Community since 2018. Her poem “Put the T First” is published in her collection Veranda Sundown and in Stonewall’s Legacy, an anthology she co-edited with Marc Rosen. Rusty is also the author of Flower Poems: Personalities in Bloom and Asylum: From the Inside.
