Elaine Noble became the first openly gay person elected to statewide office in the U.S. when she was elected to represent Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in November 1974.
“When I ran for political office, it was really important to me to be open about my gayness even though I felt a lot of pressure from people telling me to either downplay it or not say anything about it at all, and it was important to me because it was part of who I am personally, and it’s part of my politics, and I really didn’t think I needed to play that game in order to win,” Noble told WGBH-TV of Boston years later.
