Richard Noble is an LGBT activist who, in the name of equal rights, walked across America in an effort to expunge the social stigma associated with being gay. He recently made his way through San Antonio and took some time to talk to ignite about activism, the daily challenges he faces, and how he plans to continue his journey in the year ahead.
ignite: When did activism become important in your life?
RN: Activism became important to me when I began watching all my friends die from HIV related illness and not getting the medical care they needed. I was affected, too. Then came ACT UP. Everyone joined. We needed research, hospices, funds and unconditional love. The community unified and organized. I remember the news that David Geffen had spent millions to open AIDS Project Los Angeles. Celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Elton John spoke up and organized. Hollywood became the epicenter of change and forced Washington to listen.
I became one of the founding members of Queer Nation Los Angeles and engaged for three years in demonstrations around Hollywood and Los Angeles. From red carpet protests to organizing and participating in hunger strikes, my experience in activism was a byproduct of necessity.
The harms caused to us, the misunderstanding around homosexuality, I want it to end.
After several years I decided to go to India for a spiritual retreat. I became a vegetarian and began to dive deeper into spiritual teachings and disciplines from the East. I was particularly moved by India and its religious teachings.
Two decades later I am flooded with news reports of LGBT youths being bullied and committing suicide. The image of Matthew Shepard burns in my mind. The pink triangles homosexuals wore in Nazi German concentration camps, the image of two gay Iranian youth hung in public, the reports of transgender people being murdered and the ongoing hate crimes being reported brought me to my knees in prayer to what I know as a loving God. I asked for months in prayer and meditation to the spirit of my influences and my higher self: “What do I do?”
ignite: When did you set out on your journey and why?
RN: After the suicides of Seth Walsh, Asher Brown, and Tyler Clementi, I held a candlelight hunger strike in Palm Springs. That lasted nine days. I then walked the rainbow flag and American flag sixty-four miles to the 29 Palms Marine Base and hung the rainbow flag in protest of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” on the front gates.
A year ago, I was frequent on conference calls with national activists. We created a group called Connecting Rainbows-Civil Rights Walks for America in which we hoped we'd get the whole country marching for civil rights. I read the American Equality Bill which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I also understood that internalizing anger was not going to be my approach. I have seen that take many in our community into homelessness – out of rebellion, suicide, addiction and alcoholism.
I announced I was going to march the pride flag across America in protest of discrimination and human rights violations to any and all LGBT people everywhere. Honestly, the suicides of our youth who come out at young ages were more than I could take. I was going to march this flag across the country. I didn't know how.
The next Saturday was March 12th, which, ironically, was the day Gandhi started his march against the British Salt Tax in 1930. I contacted lots of people, including the Human Rights Campaign and the LOGO Network, networked on Facebook and posted event e-mails everywhere, had a goodbye party with my close friends in Palm Springs and, with the help of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, I anticipated a crowd of people to show up for my departure from the Golden Gate Bridge at 10am.
When I arrived there with rainbow flag in hand, I was alone. Nobody had showed up. Nobody had come except for one photographer from an LGBT publication.
Nine months later, I’ve marched the rainbow flag further than anyone in the world. Many proclamations and resolutions have been stacking up, all in support of the American Equality Bill and full federal LGBT equality. It's been amazing to me. I had never dreamed all to have happened that has.
ignite: What has your biggest challenge been on your walk thus far?
RN: The greatest challenge has been holding onto my morale when it's very low. It took me forty-nine days to cross the desert of Nevada on my way to Utah. If you drove by, you’d have found me crying on the side of the road in the middle of absolutely no place. There I was, away from everything I know, for days without a shower and sleeping to the howls of my friends, the coyote, me and the rainbow flag with a gun right next to my pillow as I slept at night. I am an openly gay man marching the rainbow flag across America. I had no idea if at any time a truck full of guys would drive up and try to kill me. I understood it as a possible scenario. Before I left, so many people asked me if I was willing to die doing what I am doing. The answer is, of course, I would. The harms caused to us, the misunderstanding around homosexuality, I want it to end. And for that, I was and am willing each and every day to give my life.
ignite: How do you think your walk compares to other historical civil rights movements?
RN: In any great civil rights movement there seems to always have been a march that would signify in time, a monumental social change. This is it. I hope to do that and give our youth a reason, a dream and an example of how to create change and bring responsibility to life's hardships and situations, while not committing suicide. I want to give politicians hope for a voice in Washington. I often speak at schools and have a lot of local media interest.
Read the full story at ignite.com