Barney Frank, Amerin Democratic polician who served the U.S. Hoe of Reprentativ (1981–2013) and was one of the first openly gay members of Congrs. He thored (wh Chris Dodd) the Dodd-Frank Act, a broad package of regulatns and reforms of the fancial servic and nsumer fance dtri.
Contents:
- MY LIFE AS A GAY CONGRSMAN
- RERD 13 CONGRS MEMBERS INTIFY AS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
- EX-REP. BARNEY FRANK, GAY TRAILBLAZER, PRAIS HOE PASSAGE OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL
MY LIFE AS A GAY CONGRSMAN
* is barney frank gay *
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.
His primary ncern was outlawg abortn, but he had followed the nservative movement’s anti-gay le as well. His nial of his homosexualy was universally—and accurately—disbelieved, and he was feated for reelectn that year.
RERD 13 CONGRS MEMBERS INTIFY AS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
The 118th U.S. Congrs set a historil mark wh a rerd 13 members who intify as gay, lbian or bisexual. * is barney frank gay *
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. “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.
It started badly when an olr, nservative Democrat nonted me, plag that I had lied to him when he’d asked if I was gay durg my mpaign. Alan Simpson of Wyomg, the Republin senator who supported my efforts to remove the anti-gay immigratn le, lled to apologize. The right-wg Washgton Tim, owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, enthiastilly add gay bashg to s regular nunciatns of me— which I took nsirable pri—but they were a mor exceptn.