Paula Claire Rodriguez Rust (born 1959) is an American sociologist who studies sexual orientation, especially bisexuality.^[1] Rust is editor of Bisexuality in the United States and author of Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics: Sex, Loyalty, and Revolution.^[2]

Life and career

Rust earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from University of Michigan in 1989. She has taught at Hamilton College and State University of New York at Geneseo. Rust is a member of the International Academy of Sex Research.^[3] She has been critical of 2005 work by J. Michael Bailey that did not detect a distinctly bisexual male genital arousal pattern^[4] (although in 2011 Bailey's lab did report finding it) and has advocated for more sophisticated models of sex, gender, and sexual orientation.^[5]

She and her partner Lorna Rodriguez Rust have four children.^{[citation needed]} Rust serves on the New Jersey Special Task Force on Bullying, Cyberbullying Awareness and Prevention.^[6]

Selected publications

• Rust PC (1992). The Politics of Sexual Identity: Sexual Attraction and Behavior among Lesbian and Bisexual Women, Social Problems, 1992, 39, 4, Nov, 366-386.
• Rust PC. The Salience of Problematic Sexual Identity among Lesbians, Bisexual Women, and Lesbian Sadomasochists
• Rust PC (1993). Neutralizing the political threat of the marginal woman: Lesbians' beliefs about bisexual women. Journal of Sex Research, 30, 214-228.
• Rust PC (1993). Gay Culture in America: Essays from the Field, Contemporary Sociology, 1993, 22, 2, Mar, 232-233.
• Rust PC. How Bisexuality Challenges Categories of Sexuality and Gender
• Rust PC (1994). Designing a Course on Sexuality: Issues, Problems, and Parameters, Critical Sociology, 1994, 20, 3, 155-168.
• Rust PC (1994). Dual Attraction: Understanding Bisexuality, American Journal of Sociology, 1994, 100, 3, Nov, 851-853.
• Rust PC. From Biphobia to Bipride: Changes in Self-Identified Bisexual Women's Attitudes toward Themselves during a Decade of Growing Bisexual Political Activism
• Rust PC (1995). Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics: Sex, Loyalty and Revolution. New York University Press, ISBN 978-0-8147-7445-8
• Rust PC (1996). Managing multiple identities: Diversity among bisexual women and men. In Bisexuality: The psychology and politics of an invisible minority. Edited by Firestein, Beth A., 1996. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc. pp. 53–83.
• Rust PC (1996). "Sexual Identity and Bisexual Identities: The Struggle for Self-Description in a Changing Sexual Landscape" In Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Anthology. Edited by Brett Beemyn and Mickey Eliason, 1996.
• Rust PC (1996). Monogamy and polyamory: Relationship issues for bisexuals. In Bisexuality: The psychology and politics of an invisible minority. Edited by Firestein, Beth A., 1996. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc. pp. 127–148.
• Rust PC (1997). Identity Politics: Lesbian Feminism and the Limits of Community, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1997, 26, 5, Oct, 564-567.
• Rust PC (1998). Transgendered Bisexuals: An Identity Quadri-Lemma. Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP)
• Rust PC (1999). Lesbians in Academia: Degrees of Freedom. Gender & Society, 1999, 13, 3, June, 419-420.
• Rust PC (2000). Bisexuality: A contemporary paradox for women, Journal of Social Issues, Vol 56(2), Sum 2000. Special Issue: Women's sexualities: New perspectives on sexual orientation and gender. pp. 205–221.
• Rust PC (Ed.) (2001a). Bisexuality in the United States: A social science reader. Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-10227-8
• Rust PC (2001b) Make Me a Map: Bisexual Men's Images of Bisexual Community. Journal of Bisexuality, 1, 47-108.
• Rust PC (2001c). Too many and not enough: The meanings of bisexual identities. Journal of Bisexuality, 1, 33-68.