Politicians, activists pay tribute to Barney Frank

Former U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 until his retirement in 2013 and became the first lawmaker to come out as gay in 1987, died on May 19 at his home in Ogunquit, Maine, at the age of 86.

His death came less than a month after he announced that he had entered home hospice care under the care of his husband, Jim Ready, due to terminal congestive heart failure, and shortly after finishing a new book titled “The Hard Road to Unity: Why We Must Reform the Left to Save Democracy.”

Despite his frail health, Frank gave interviews in the final weeks of his life with multiple news outlets, including the Washington Blade, in which he reflected on his sometimes controversial positions on issues such as transgender rights.

She told the Blade that she has been living with her husband in an apartment complex in Maine since retiring in 2013, calling him a “saint” for caring for him during his illness. In 2012, 72-year-old Frank married Reddy, making him the first sitting MP to marry a person of the same sex.

News of his death prompted an outpouring of praise and reflection on his life as a groundbreaking gay lawmaker from current and former members of Congress and LGBTQ rights leaders.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced on May 20 that she was ordering the American flag and state flag to be lowered to half-staff at all statehouses in honor of Frank’s life, work, and passing.

“Barney Frank was truly a trailblazer,” Kelly Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said in a statement. “He chose visibility at a time when coming out as gay in public life could have cost you everything,” Robinson said.

Robinson and other LGBTQ advocates also pointed to Frank’s role in speaking to Congress in the early days of HIV/AIDS to strengthen efforts to tackle the AIDS epidemic, pushing for repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that allowed gays to serve openly in the military, enacting marriage equality for same-sex couples, and broader anti-discrimination protections.

Frank is also credited with helping pass the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Protection Act of 2009.

In addition to his longstanding support for LGBTQ rights, political observers say one of his most important accomplishments in Congress was his role as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, where he co-authored the bill known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Amid a national banking crisis, the New York Times called the Frank Act, written by Frank and then-Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), “the most significant overhaul of the nation’s financial regulation since the Great Depression.”

Frank was born and raised in Bayonne, New Jersey and graduated from Bayonne High School.

He graduated from Harvard University in Massachusetts in 1962, worked in various places including as an assistant to then-Boston Mayor Kevin White, and was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1972, representing a Boston-area district for eight years. During that time, he attended and graduated from Harvard Law School and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1979 after passing the bar exam.

In 1980, Frank ran for Congress in Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District, winning a four-candidate race with 52 percent of the vote, and was sworn into office in January 1981. Frank won re-election decisively over the next three decades until announcing his plans to retire in 2012, when he announced he would not run for re-election that year.

The New York Times was one of the publications to report this week after Mr. Frank’s death that his career as a respected and admired lawmaker helped him survive a sex scandal with male prostitute Stephen Goby that surfaced in 1990.

According to media reports at the time, Frank patronized Goby as one of his clients and even kept him as a roommate for a time in Frank’s Washington, D.C., home in the Capitol Hill area. The New York Times said in an article this week that Mr. Goby “alleged that he operated a prostitution ring out of Mr. Frank’s home in the mid-1980s.”

Similar to other media reports, the Times report added that an investigation found that, although the House Ethics Committee did not substantiate the allegations, Mr. Frank sought to shorten his probation for drug and sex offense convictions by revising 33 of Mr. Goby’s parking tickets and writing a misleading memo on Congressional stationery to officials involved in overseeing Mr. Goby’s probation.

The full House of Representatives voted 408-18 to pass a resolution to discipline Frank for his abuse of power, but rejected some calls to censure or expel him.

“I should have known better,” Frank said in a speech on the House floor at the time, according to the New York Times. “There was a central element of injustice in my life,” the Times quoted him as saying. “Three years ago, I decided that hiding wasn’t going to work. I wish I had made the decision earlier,” he said of his decision to publicly come out as gay in 1987.

Despite this, Frank was re-elected that year with 66 percent of the vote, a feat his friends and supporters attribute to his reputation as a beloved and highly regarded public figure.

PFLAG, a national advocacy group for parents and friends of LGBTQ people, is one of the organizations that released a statement this week reflecting on Frank’s positive impact on the LGBTQ community.

“In addition to being the first openly gay member of Congress, as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Mr. Frank co-authored the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which helped ensure access to housing for LGBTQ+ people,” PFLAG said in a statement.

“He has also been a leading advocate for legislation to combat HIV/AIDS,” the statement said, adding that PFLAG’s national office honored Frank with its 2018 Advocate for Justice Award.

“Bernie was an outspoken, outspoken, quick-witted and downright funny man who always had an eye for progress,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the first openly lesbian elected to the U.S. Senate, said in a statement. “He was willing to take on anyone who got in his way, and I should know that I was one of the many who heard from him from time to time,” Baldwin said.

“But I, and others who spent time with him, were lucky enough to see him in action and learn from him. Bernie was a great legislator, knowledgeable, strategic, and always thinking about the long game. Our country is a better, fairer, and more equal place because of Bernie. He will be sorely missed,” she continued in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Equality Caucus, which represents LGBTQ lawmakers and allies in Congress, issued his own statement on behalf of the caucus, noting that Frank is one of the caucus’ two founding members.

“Just a few years after he co-founded the Congressional Equality Caucus, I was honored to have him campaign for me as I ran for Congress, and now I have the unique privilege of leading this caucus,” Takano said.

He was referring to the creation of the House LGBT Equality Caucus in 2008 by Frank Baldwin and then-Congressman Tammy Baldwin, the only openly gay members of Congress, which later evolved into the Congressional Equality Caucus.

“Bernie has proven that what matters most is the work he does for others,” Takano said in a statement. “I truly believe that because of Barney Frank, we are moving closer to a more equal world,” he said. “Congressman Frank’s legacy touches every part of our fight for LGBTQI+ equality, from his work advocating for HIV and AIDS research to helping pass major equality legislation like the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Act and the Hate Crimes Act. ”

In an interview with the Blade on May 5, Frank responded to criticism he received from some LGBTQ rights advocates, particularly trans activists, during his time in Congress, arguing that he did not provide enough support for transgender rights legislation.

He said he fully supports continued efforts to advance transgender rights, but said those efforts could be jeopardized by pushing issues that many voters don’t yet accept, such as “male-to-female transgender people playing in women’s sports.”

Among those who celebrated Frank’s life and work upon his death was longtime trans activist Diego Sanchez, who became the first openly transgender Congressional staffer when Frank hired Sanchez as a senior policy adviser in his office. Sanchez remained on Frank’s staff until Frank retired in 2013.

“Bernie was a respected politician in our country at the local, state and federal levels and a dear friend of mine,” Sanchez told the Blade in a statement. “His belief that prejudice comes from ignorance and can only be caused by attention explains how he openly came out and how he intentionally and unapologetically brought me on to his staff,” Sanchez said.

She added: “I miss him so much and I’m glad I got to spend a week with him and my husband Jim this month. Bernie made sure no member of Congress could say he’d never met a transgender person. I was honored to be a groomsman at their wedding, and I’ll miss Bernie’s brilliance, advice, friendship and wit.”

Sanchez said celebrations of life events will be held in Boston and Washington, D.C., and details of those events will be announced soon.