A living link: “Mother of Stonewall” Rusty Rose to speak at Northport Pridefest
Rita Rusty Rose, pictured here at a Long Island poetry reading, is scheduled to speak at Northport Pridefest this Saturday, June 20. Photo by MFK.
Rita “Rusty” Rose has spent decades carrying many titles: Stonewall veteran, activist, poet and musician. But ask her about the role she treasures most, and the answer comes quickly.
“Having my daughter was the best thing I ever did in my life,” Rose told the Journal in an interview last month, in anticipation of her appearance at Northport Village’s Pridefest in the Park event this Saturday, June 20.
Known by many as the “Mother of Stonewall,” the nearly 75-year-old activist has spent recent years embracing another maternal role – serving as a mentor and living link to LGBTQ+ history for a younger generation, particularly transgender youth searching for guidance during a turbulent moment in US history.
Nearly 57 years after the Stonewall uprising, the Long Island activist said she’s coming to Northport Pridefest because she believes young people need to hear the history – their history – firsthand.
“Nothing supportive”
Long before she became an activist, Rose was a young woman trying to understand her identity.
She said she knew from an early age that she was attracted to women, recalling a childhood crush on actress and singer Abbe Lane. But when she searched for information about gay people, she found little beyond materials that portrayed homosexuality as something wrong or broken. There were no affirming books, role models or public figures who reflected her experience, she said.
Acceptance was also difficult to find at home. Rose said her father in particular struggled to accept her sexuality and, according to Rose, gave her an ultimatum: get married or leave.
“The only way you’re going to get out of this house, either you get married or you go in a box,” she recalled him saying.
Rose eventually married her band’s bass player, whom she described as understanding and supportive of her identity. The marriage resulted in the birth of their daughter; Rose and her former bandmate remain lifelong friends.
Those experiences, Rose said, help explain why she feels such a strong connection to LGBTQ+ youth today.
Standing her ground
As a teenager, Rose – who grew up in Babylon Village – spent time in New York City's Greenwich Village, where she was drawn to the artists, musicians and free-spirited people who gathered there. Despite understanding her identity from a young age, Rose said social “norms” back then made it difficult to live openly. LGBTQ+ people risked losing jobs, relationships and even custody of their children if their true identities were discovered.
It was within that NYC counterculture that Rose began building connections that would eventually place her among the activists who took part in the catalyst event of the Stonewall riots, a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the LGBTQ+ community in June 1969 responding to a police raid at Stonewall Inn, the iconic NYC gay bar.
At 17 years old, Rose found herself at the center of the raid, where she stood her ground and resisted arrest.
Widely considered a watershed moment in history, the riots catalyzed the modern gay liberation movement and the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights in the United States.
After Stonewall, Rose became involved in movements for LGBTQ rights, women’s rights and social justice causes, developing a commitment to those people she felt had been marginalized or excluded. She knew and worked alongside figures such as Sylvia Rivera and Stormé DeLarverie, pivotal figures in the grassroots, fierce resistance of the early movement, proving that the fight for equality was led from the very beginning by queer people of color, gender-nonconforming individuals and lesbians – a point Rose still very much wants people to recognize.
A bridge between generations
For years, Rose said, her role in LGBTQ+ history was largely overlooked. While names such as Rivera and DeLarverie’s became more recognized, Rose often found herself absent from conversations about the movement’s early days.
That changed when younger LGBTQ+ people began seeking her out. Rose said millennials in particular became interested in hearing firsthand accounts from Stonewall veterans and learning more about people whose stories had been left out of mainstream narratives.
The renewed interest inspired Rose to become more visible again, sharing her experiences through interviews, poetry and public appearances. Worried that younger generations are being deprived of hearing firsthand accounts, she believes LGBTQ+ history is most impactful when it comes directly from surviving participants. Her goal, she said, is to continue to be that bridge between generations and to reassure LGBTQ+ youth that they are not alone.
One of the messages Rose speaks about most passionately is support for transgender people, particularly young people who may be struggling to find acceptance.
In 2019, she published a version of her performance poem Put the T First, which she wrote to elevate transgender voices and recognize their place in LGBTQ+ history, she said. Rose believes the roles of transgender people, lesbians and people of color have been minimized or excluded in retellings of Stonewall and the broader fight for equality.
“My trans community needed desperately to be empowered,” she said.
At Northport Pridefest, Rose plans to perform the poem and speak directly to younger attendees. She hopes to reassure them that the activists who fought for LGBTQ+ rights decades ago remain invested in their future.
“We activists will not abandon them,” she said.
Love them, support them
While Rose acknowledged that LGBTQ youth today often have greater visibility and acceptance than previous generations – and this is where her instinct to protect and nurture kicks in again – she said family support remains critical.
She encouraged parents to focus less on labels and more on ensuring their children feel loved and accepted at home.
“If the child is straight, if the child is gay, if the child is trans – love them, support them,” Rose said.
She spoke about how young people today face tremendous pressure from social media, politics and public discourse. In that environment, she said, parents can play an important role by serving as allies rather than adversaries.
“They don’t need another enemy,” she said. “They need an ally.”
Rose was named the first Poet Laureate of the Long Island LGBTQ community in 2018, a title she has held continuously since then. Her lifelong dedication to uplifting marginalized voices will be on display once again this Saturday, June 20, as local residents hear her message firsthand at Northport Pridefest in the Park. Rose is scheduled to take the gazebo stage at 3pm in Northport Village Park.
Did you know?
Rose’s connection to Northport dates back to childhood. She recalled accompanying her father, a Brooklyn businessman and handyman, on jobs around Long Island. During one visit to Northport, she met writer Jack Kerouac, whom she remembered wearing pink feathered slippers and a kimono. The encounter later inspired one of her poems.
When Rose received an invitation to Pridefest, she said she immediately felt drawn to participate.
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