[3] Naegle serves as board member emeritus at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, an LGBTQIA "safe space," community activist center, and educational enclave in Princeton, New Jersey dedicated to honoring Bayard Rustin through their mission and good works.

During high school in the 1960s, he became interested in the African-American struggle for civil rights and social justice, particularly with its commitment to nonviolence as the means to bring about democratic change.

[5] Immediately summoned to report for induction, he did not appear, but was never indicted because the local draft board had acted improperly in his case.

[8] Rustin's obituary in The New York Times does not mention the partnership, describing Naegle as his "administrative assistant and adopted son".

Upon accepting the medal, he described Rustin as such:Being black, being homosexual, being a political radical, that's a combination that's pretty volatile and it comes along like Halley's Comet.