'''Stella Rush''' (April 30, 1925 – July 25, 2015),<ref name="makinggayhistory.com">{{cite web |last1=Eric |first1=Marcus |title=Season 4: Episode 6: Stella Rush ("Sten Russell") Making Gay History {{!}} LGBTQ |url=https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/stella-rush-sten-russell/ |website=Making Gay History |accessdate=2 October 2019}}</ref> also known by her pen name '''Sten Russell''', was an American journalist and LGBT rights activist. She was a regular reporter for the gay rights magazine ''ONE'' (1954–1961) and the lesbian rights magazine ''The Ladder'' (1957–1968).
== Early life and education == Rush was born on April 30, 1925, in Los Angeles. Her father died when she was two years old, and she spent her childhood moving repeatedly between Los Angeles and Kentucky with her mother.<ref name="stonewall" />
She graduated from Dorsey High School in 1943.
Rush attended the University of California, Berkeley for two years and transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles for her third year; she left without graduating and took up a job at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.<ref name="evidence" />
== Political activism == After graduating from Dorsey High School in 1943, she worked as an aircraft draftsman for North American Aviation until 1945.
Rush's career as a gay rights activist began as a writer for ''ONE'' magazine, joining the organization in 1953.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gallo|first=Marcia M.|title=Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement|publisher=Seal Press|year=2007|isbn=9781580052528|pages=145}}</ref> She wrote her first article, a first-person account of the Los Angeles gay scene, in 1954 under the pseudonym "Sten Russell". She was a regular reporter for ''ONE'' until 1961.<ref name="evidence">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V6huAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT235|title=Bodies of Evidence: The Practice of Queer Oral History|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-19-991085-4|editor-last1=Alamilla Boyd|editor-first1=Nan|editor-last2=Roque Ramirez|editor-first2=Horacio N.}}</ref> She became involved with the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), a lesbian rights organization, in 1957, and was a co-founder and treasurer of the organization's Los Angeles chapter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://herstories.prattinfoschool.nyc/omeka/exhibits/show/daughters-of-bilitis-video-pro/stella-rush---helen-sandoz|publisher=Lesbian Herstory Archives|title=Stella Rush & Helen Sandoz|accessdate=May 28, 2017}}</ref> She and Helen Sandoz were also involved with the Circle of Loving Companions as close friends of its founders, Harry Hay and John Burnside.<ref>{{Citation |last=Timmons|first=Stuart|author-link=Stuart Timmons|title=The Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement|year=1990|publisher=Alyson Publications|isbn=978-1-55583-175-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781555831110|pages=214}}</ref>
=== Involvement with The Ladder === She served as the Los Angeles reporter for its official publication, ''The Ladder''. She mainly reported on conferences, seminars, and new research into homosexuality, and also published poems in the magazine. She ceased working with the DOB in 1968, following the organization's merger with the National Organization for Women, because she disagreed with the rhetoric of the feminist movement and felt that the campaign for women's rights victimized men.<ref name="stonewall">{{cite book|last=Saunders|first=Judith M.|title=Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context|publisher=Routledge|year=2014|isbn=978-1-317-76628-5|editor-last1=Dececco|editor-first1=John|pages=135–144|chapter=Stella Rush a.k.a. Sten Russell|editor-last2=Bullough|editor-first2=Vern L.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V7nKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA135}}</ref>
==Personal life== Rush was bisexual.<ref name="makinggayhistory.com" /> She was in a relationship with Helen Sandoz for thirty years; they met in 1957 and lived together in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, until Sandoz's death in 1987.<ref name="stonewall" /><ref name="evidence" />
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rush, Stella}} Category:1925 births Category:2015 deaths Category:20th-century American women writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:American lesbian writers Category:LGBTQ rights activists from California Category:Writers from Los Angeles Category:American reporters and correspondents Category:American magazine journalists Category:American women non-fiction writers Category:Susan Miller Dorsey High School alumni Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:Daughters of Bilitis members Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers Category:20th-century pseudonymous women writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:American bisexual writers Category:American women human rights activists