Freeman, Noel

Noel Freeman is a native of California, where he graduated from Fontana High School in Fontana, California. Following high school, Noel enlisted in the United States Air Force as a signals intelligence analyst. During his four-year enlistment, he served in various capacities, including target entity analysis for the National Security Agency, chief of training for the Headquarters, Air Intelligence Agency Honor Guard and command and control warfare analysis for the Air Force Information Warfare Center. His tours included the National Security Agency and the Air Intelligence Agency, with deployments and short assignments to Korea, White Sands, New Mexico and San Diego, California.

Following his enlistment, Noel attended Texas A&M University as a member of the renowned Corps of Cadets where he was eventually named commander of Cadet Squadron 18 after building the squadron from the ground up. In December 2000, he was discharged from Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps for being gay, but in May 2003 became the first openly gay cadet to complete the Corps of Cadets program in its history and founded the Rear Admiral Alan M. Steinman Gay and Lesbian Cadet Scholarship Foundation to benefit those gay and lesbian cadets who join the Corps of Cadets in the future. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Steinman Foundation.

In light of his work with the Corps of Cadets and the Steinman Foundation, Noel has joined forces with Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to lobby members of Congress to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, a law that prohibits gay and lesbian service members from serving openly. He has lobbied numerous congressmen and senators each year since 2003 and served as the State Captain for the Texas delegation in May 2004. Noel has been honored by groups including Lambda Legal and American Veterans for Equal Rights for his courage and efforts to effect change for the lives of gay and lesbian service members.

Noel has a wide array of professional experience in the private sector as well as government at the federal and municipal levels and aspires to be a servant of the people. He currently resides in Houston, Texas where he works for the City of Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering.