Elaine Noble
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Elaine Noble (born January 22, 1944) is an American
politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
and
LGBT activist Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...
who served in the
Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...
for two terms starting in January 1975. She was
the first The First may refer to: * ''The First'' (album), the first Japanese studio album by South Korean boy group Shinee * ''The First'' (musical), a musical with a book by critic Joel Siegel * The First (TV channel), an American conservative opinion ne ...
openly
lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
or gay candidate elected to a state legislature. She served two terms as representative for the Fenway-Kenmore and Back Bay neighborhoods of Boston.


Early life and education

Elaine Noble was born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, on January 22, 1944. Noble gained her B.F.A degree from Boston University in 1966, an S.M. in speech and education at
Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
in 1970, and an
M.Ed. The Master of Education (MEd or M.Ed. or Ed.M.; Latin ''Magister Educationis'' or ''Educationis Magister'') is a master's degree awarded by university, universities in many countries. This degree in education often includes the following majors: ...
at Harvard University in 1974. After graduation, she worked at a job-year women's school where she came out as a lesbian.


Activism

Before entering politics, Noble worked as a speech instructor and an advertising manager. She was involved in LGBT rights activism in Boston. Noble helped organize Boston's early Pride marches. With Ann Murray, she formed the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, and served on the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women.


Political career


Massachusetts House of Representatives

In 1974, Noble was elected to the state House of Representatives for the 6th Suffolk district with 59% of the vote. She has described the campaign as "very ugly," including "shooting through my windows, destroying my car, breaking windows at my campaign headquarters, ndserious harassment." Her election made her the first openly LGBT candidate elected to a state-level office in the United States. She was sworn into office on
New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...
1975 by governor Michael Dukakis. 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. 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." Noble was an early critic of Father
Paul Shanley Paul Richard Shanley (January 25, 1931 – October 28, 2020) was an American Roman Catholic priest who became the center of a massive sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston in Massachusetts. Beginning in 1967, the archdiocese covered ...
, 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. Noble was re-elected in 1976 with almost 90% of the vote, and her second two-year term started on January 1, 1977. 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 The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...
.


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%). 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 (mayor), 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. After leaving Mayor White's office, Noble established Noble Consulting, a healthcare consulting group. In 1986, Noble and Ellen Ratner formed a 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. 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. Despite some policy differences, including on abortion, Noble endorsed Francis Bellotti, Francis X. Bellotti as Democratic candidate in the 1990 Massachusetts gubernatorial race.


Retirement from public life

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


Tributes

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


See also

* LGBT culture in Boston * List of the first LGBT holders of political offices * 169th Massachusetts General Court


References


External links


Should Marriage Between Homosexuals Be Permitted?
Debate on Same-sex Marriage, ''The Advocates'', 1974.
Something Personal; A Woman's Place Is In The House: A Portrait of Elaine Noble; 105
1977-00-00, WGBH Educational Foundation, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WGBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC * {{DEFAULTSORT:Noble, Elaine 1944 births Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni Emerson College alumni Harvard University alumni Lesbian politicians American LGBT rights activists LGBT state legislators in Massachusetts LGBT people from Pennsylvania Living people Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives People from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Women state legislators in Massachusetts Politicians from Boston 21st-century American women