“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love that we commit to one another must be equal as well.” –President Barack Obama
If my recent historic walk of the Rainbow flag across America meant anything at all, it surely meant this. This inauguration embodied the very love that made becoming the first gay man to walk the Rainbow flag across the United States of America, possible.
My name is Richard Noble. I am a gay man from Palm Springs. In December of 2010 while getting news reports of gay youth committing suicide and having gone through the political and religious attacks growing up myself, I decided it was high time to get up and walk the rainbow flag across the United States of America and demand full LGBT civil rights equality.
I called many LGBT organizations around the country and asked for help. I was rejected.
I joined The American Equality Bill Project on Facebook and opened up a Recreational Equipment, Inc. gift registry where so many of my gracious friends and sponsors sent me the supplies I needed.
My friend and colleague Todd Fernandez sent me a resolution for the American Equality Bill to be supported by local mayors and state officials. The proposal fell on deaf ears in the City Council of Palm Springs.
Walking across America, going through 8 pair of hiking boots, two sleeping bags and a T-Half Dome tent, the over 5 million steps I walked with the Rainbow flag for Equality was the most amazing, life affirming experience ever imaginable.
I had no idea how wonderful cowboys and swamp people would be, the Mormon lady who pulled over to tell me I was a prophet of things to come, the Facebook friends I found and have were extraordinary in their moral support and financial assistance all along the way.
Alone in my tent out on the highways of America were challenging. Before I arrived, there were many phone calls to state senators and mayors for my request of a full equality proclamation. We have an LGBT Equality Caucus in DC and the Human Rights Campaign who advocates and lobbies on our behalf for civil rights equality. The strategy was always a bill here and a bill there. With one gay kid shooting himself in the head outside of Houston, another hanging from a tree outside of Bakersfield, and another jumping from a bridge in New York, I took up the flag and demanded full and complete civil rights protections for everyone with an LGBT Civil Rights Act. The nation responded overwhelmingly.
Dreams came true. Walking thousands of miles, every step of the way, across deserts and over mountains, along swamps of the south and through Native American Indian Reservations, challenged me physically and spiritually. I ran with wild horses, caught my first lightening bug and held a Louisiana baby alligator. The local media ran stories and I adopted a dog, Trinity, from the fire department in San Antonio, Texas. Teachers invited me to talk about bullying in schools and 12 mayors Proclaimed LGBT Civil Rights Equality Days on my behalf.
Faced with an impossible dream and an epic task in front of me, I am delighted to have made history. The Chiefs of Staff of the LGBT Congressional Equality Caucus met me when I got to DC and were thankful. Senator Baldwin, in a phone conversation, encouraged, although very poor myself and up against big government and big religion, to stay the course and build the voice for full equality.
While crossing Louisiana, Todd came up with the Pledge for Full LGBT Equality-2014. It included (marriage) sex based non-discrimination in the federal American Equality Bill and it’s great, being both endorsed by The Desert Stonewall Democrats and The Gay and Lesbian Center of the Desert. Google that!
In solidarity, as I write this, I remain thankful and humble at receiving in the mail today the LGBT Flag personalized to me from South Africa with a Nelson Mandela medallion that reads, “A Long Walk to Freedom.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, our time has come.
