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

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. She has been critical of 2005 work by J. Michael Bailey that did not detect a distinctly bisexual male genital arousal pattern (although in 2011 Bailey's lab did report finding it) and has advocated for more sophisticated models of sex, gender, and sexual orientation. She and her partner Lorna Rodriguez Rust have four children. Rust serves on the New Jersey Special Task Force on Bullying, Cyberbullying Awareness and Prevention.

Selected publications