Elaine Noble

Elaine Noble (born January 22, 1944) is an American politician and LGBT activist who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for two terms starting in January 1975. She was the first openly lesbian or gay candidate elected to a state legislature.[1] She served two terms as representative for the Fenway-Kenmore and Back Bay neighborhoods of Boston.[2]

Elaine Noble
Noble c. 1975
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
from the 6th Suffolk district district
In office
January 1, 1975 – January 1, 1979
Personal details
Born (1944-01-22) January 22, 1944
New Kensington, Pennsylvania
Political partyDemocratic
ResidenceFlorida

Early life and education

Elaine Noble was born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, on January 22, 1944.[1]

Noble gained her B.F.A degree from Boston University in 1966, an S.M. in speech and education at Emerson College in 1970, and an M.Ed. at Harvard University in 1974.[1][3] At Emerson, she served as an Emerson Homophile Arts Society advisor and co-director of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus.[4] After graduation, she worked at a job-year women's school where she came out as a lesbian.[5]

Activism

Before entering politics, Noble worked as a speech instructor and an advertising manager.

She was involved in LGBT rights activism in Boston.[1] She was a member of the local chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis.[6] In 1974, Noble participated in a televised debate on the topic of same-sex marriage.[7] Noble helped organize Boston's early Pride marches.[8] With Ann Murray, she formed the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, and served on the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women.[9][8]

Political career

Massachusetts House of Representatives
External video
video icon “Something Personal; A Woman's Place Is In The House: A Portrait of Elaine Noble” is a documentary about Elaine Noble, the first openly gay person elected to a state legislature and began serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1975 produced by WGBH Educational Foundation.

In 1974, Noble was elected to the state House of Representatives for the 6th Suffolk district with 59% of the vote.[1] She has described the campaign as "very ugly," including "shooting through my windows, destroying my car, breaking windows at my campaign headquarters, [and] serious harassment."[6] Her election made her the first openly LGBT candidate elected to a state-level office in the United States.[10][11] She was sworn into office on New Year's Day 1975 by governor Michael Dukakis.[10]

As an educator, Noble supported desegregation of Boston public schools. She encouraged her campaigners to oversee school pick-ups and drop-offs for children in her district. She was the only white member of the Boston delegation that rode school busses with the children.[12] Her support angered her constituents, both conservative as well as gay and lesbian, who expected her to focus solely on gay and lesbian issues. Her house was vandalized and she was threatened with a gun. She also felt burdened and frustrated by the demands of gay men and lesbians who seemed to expect that she speak for all of them. She said, "The gay community expected me to be on call 24 hours a day. It was like they felt they owned me."[2]

Noble was an early critic of Father Paul Shanley, a Catholic priest who was ultimately convicted of sex crimes in 2005. She reported Shanley's comments and behavior to Boston officials on several occasions in the 1970s to no avail.[13]

Noble was re-elected in 1976 with almost 90% of the vote, and her second two-year term started on January 1, 1977.[6]

In March 1977, Noble was part of the first delegation of gay men and lesbians invited to the White House under President Jimmy Carter to discuss issues important to the LGBT community.[14]

1978 United States Senate campaign

After two terms in the Massachusetts House, Noble ran for the United States Senate in 1978. She finished last out of five Democrats who competed in the primary, with 52,464 votes (5.8%).[15] She did not run for re-election to the House.

Later work in politics

She later went to work for Mayor of Boston Kevin White. Noble was required to testify in front of a grand jury for nineteen hours in connection with an FBI investigation into bribery in the mayor's office. No charges were brought against Noble.[1]

After leaving Mayor White's office, Noble established Noble Consulting, a healthcare consulting group. In 1986, Noble and Ellen Ratner formed an LGBT alcohol and drug treatment center in Minneapolis called the Pride Institute. She attempted to establish a similar center in Massachusetts, but was rebuffed by local government. Noble ran unsuccessfully for the Cambridge, Massachusetts city council in 1991 and 1993.[1][2] In her 1991 campaign, she expressed support for rent control policies, a domestic partnership ordinance, and direct election of the city's mayor. Noble also ran on fiscal responsibility at the city-level, offering ideas for cutting spending without raising taxes or cutting funding to essential services.[16]

Despite some policy differences, including on abortion, Noble endorsed Francis X. Bellotti as Democratic candidate in the 1990 Massachusetts gubernatorial race.[17]

Retirement from public life

In 1994, Noble took work as head administrator at Middlesex County Hospital but resigned after six months.[2]

In 2009, she made a rare fundraising appearance at a Stonewall gala benefiting Compass Community Center in Lake Worth, Florida.

Personal life

Noble had a relationship with writer Rita Mae Brown in the 1970s and has since retained privacy regarding her personal life. She lives in Florida.[2]

Tributes

In 2015, she was named by the Equality Forum as one of their 31 Icons of the 2015 LGBT History Month.[18]

See also

References
  1. Gianoulis, Tina (2005-10-13). "Noble, Elaine". glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Archived from the original on 2007-10-30. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
  2. "30 Years after the White House Meeting: Participants then and now". National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
  3. Public officers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. State Library of Massachusetts. [Boston, Mass. : General Court]. 1975–1976. p. 255.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. Clossey, Erin (2022-06-17). "The Evolution of Emerson Pride: Part 1". Emerson Today. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  5. Times, John Kifner Special to The New York (1974-11-14). "Sexuality Issue put to Rest, Elaine Noble is Ready for Office (Published 1974)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  6. "OutHistory: Elaine Noble". Archived from the original on 2009-06-09. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
  7. Gay Marriage Debate 1974, retrieved 2023-03-12
  8. Iovannone, Jeffry J. (2019-05-30). "Elaine Noble: Political Pioneer". Medium. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  9. Times, John Kifner Special to The New York (1974-11-14). "Sexuality Issue put to Rest, Elaine Noble is Ready for Office (Published 1974)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  10. Neff, Lisa (2002-11-12). "Elaine Noble November 1974: a progressive Massachusetts candidate becomes the first openly gay person elected to a state-level office". The Advocate. Archived from the original on 2008-10-07. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
  11. Stein, Marc (2012). Rethinking the Gay and Lesbian Movement. Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 9780415874106.
  12. "Elaine Noble, Massachusetts, 1974 · Out and Elected in the USA: 1974-2004 Ron Schlittler · OutHistory: It's About Time". outhistory.org. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  13. Sally Jacobs, ['If they knew the madness in me': A search for the real Rev. Paul Shanley suggests he was part hero, part horror], The Boston Globe (2002), accessed 09 September 2018
  14. Sklar, Roberta. "Press conference commemorates first White House meeting". Qnotes. Archived from the original on 2008-10-07. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
  15. "Massachusetts Election Results, 1978 (PDF)" (PDF). 1978. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
  16. Schmitz, Dawn (1991-08-10). "Noble plans political comeback; After keeping a low profile in Cambridge politics, former state legislator Elaine Noble declares her candidacy for City Council". Gay Community News.
  17. Jones, Marcus (1990-01-04). "Bellotti announces candidacy". The Ten O'Clock News, WGBH. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  18. Malcolm Lazin (August 20, 2015). "Op-ed: Here Are the 31 Icons of 2015's Gay History Month". Advocate.com. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
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