Former Rep. Barney Frank, the first member of Congrs to voluntarily e out as gay, attend Thursday’s historic Hoe vote to protect same-sex and terracial marriage and praised legislators for their work.
Contents:
- MY LIFE AS A GAY CONGRSMAN
- 17 GAY SEX SNDALS THAT ROCKED AMERIN POLICS
- RERD 13 CONGRS MEMBERS INTIFY AS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
- TAMMY BALDW, WHO IS GAY, NONTED MAR RUB ABOUT LLG SAME-SEX MARRIAGE VOTE A ‘STUPID WASTE OF TIME’
- EX-REP. BARNEY FRANK, GAY TRAILBLAZER, PRAIS HOE PASSAGE OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL
MY LIFE AS A GAY CONGRSMAN
The 118th U.S. Congrs set a historil mark wh a rerd 13 members who intify as gay, lbian or bisexual. * gay senator frank *
Wily regard as one of the most telligent and well spoken members of the Hoe of Reprentativ, Barney Frank, a Democratic Congrsman for nearly 30 years and the first openly gay member of the Hoe, almost undid his reer 1989 after havg an affair wh Steve Gobie, a male prostute. Though I was a third term Democratic ngrsman om Massachetts, I had lived too long wh the burn of “the gay thg” to treat g out as a polil matter alone. I’d felt shame as I watched younger gay men and lbians nont the bigots openly wh a urage that I lacked.
They remaed mted to the “le” that proment people should not be outed unls they had been enmhed a gay-related sndal, but they were unrstandably eager to break the story. I nsistently said no—I didn’t ny I was gay but voked their own nondisclosure prciple.
17 GAY SEX SNDALS THAT ROCKED AMERIN POLICS
* gay senator frank *
His primary ncern was outlawg abortn, but he had followed the nservative movement’s anti-gay le as well.
RERD 13 CONGRS MEMBERS INTIFY AS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
The Senate ph to enshre feral protectns for same-sex marriage has land Wisns’s two senators — liberal Tammy Baldw, the first openly gay senator * gay senator frank *
His nial of his homosexualy was universally—and accurately—disbelieved, and he was feated for reelectn that year. In his memoir scribg his own gay life, he ced my attendance at a gay pri rally the pany of a iend whom he accurately assumed was a romantic attachment. No one readg uld miss the clear import: I was a gay man who enjoyed a media silence that he had been nied.
TAMMY BALDW, WHO IS GAY, NONTED MAR RUB ABOUT LLG SAME-SEX MARRIAGE VOTE A ‘STUPID WASTE OF TIME’
“Tip, ” I said, “Bob Bman has jt wrten a book that says I’m gay. When I had asked gay rights activist Steve Enan to take me to a gay bar 1980, durg Congrs’s lame-duck ssn, he was chastised by a senr gay polil lear for threateng my ver, thereby endangerg an important LGBT polil asset.
I then explaed that I did not tend to announce anythg, but that I would answer hontly if a reporter asked if I was gay. If beg gay was no big al, people would reasonably ask why I announced .
EX-REP. BARNEY FRANK, GAY TRAILBLAZER, PRAIS HOE PASSAGE OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL
Askg if I were gay—even wh my permissn—would break the no-outg le and require them to expla why I was a one-time exceptn. Office, turned on her tape rerr, and asked me, “Are you gay?
Robson had two reasons for beg so proprietary: It was his journalistic terrory, and he was himself a closeted gay man whom I had met at social functns D.
(Inappropriately, the Globe later assigned him to the “society” beat, where he often mented om his closet a snarky way about other gay people.