{"id":100,"date":"2026-05-20T16:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=100"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:39:13","slug":"barney-frank-dies-pioneer-of-gay-rights-in-congress-wall-street-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"Barney Frank dies; pioneer of gay rights in Congress, Wall Street reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For more than two decades, former Rep. Barney Frank refused to speak to reporters from The Washington Times.<\/p>\n

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Mr. Frank, one of the first openly gay members of Congress who died Tuesday, was often polite but always firm in rebuffing the journalists. He told them the newspaper had \u201cruined my life\u201d with its 1989 expos\u00e9 revealing he had hired an aide, with whom he was in a romantic relationship, and the man ran a male prostitution ring out of their shared home in Washington.<\/p>\n

The Massachusetts Democrat admitted to the relationship, which he had ended by then. But he took umbrage at a follow-up Times report that he was aware of the prostitution, saying he had booted Stephen Gobie from the apartment in 1987 when he learned of the operation.<\/p>\n

The House ethics committee backed him, eventually rejecting the idea that he was involved with the business being run out of his home.<\/p>\n

The scandal earned Mr. Frank a reprimand, but proved to be only a speed bump on what would ultimately become a three-decade career on Capitol Hill, where his acerbic wit and legislative acumen were legendary.<\/p>\n

He would close out his time in 2013 as the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee \u2014 a post where, as chairman, he led what became known as the Dodd-Frank legislation, intended to straighten out Wall Street after the 2008 collapse.<\/p>\n

Mr. Frank died Tuesday. He was 86.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica\u2019s working families in Massachusetts and beyond have lost an iconic champion with the passing of Chairman Barney Frank,\u201d said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. \u201cAll of us fortunate enough to serve alongside him were blessed by his boundless knowledge, sage wisdom and great humor.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called him \u201ca pioneering and powerful voice for the LGBTQ community,\u201d and also hailed his efforts on HIV\/AIDS and housing issues.<\/p>\n

Mr. Frank was first elected in 1980 and came out as gay in 1987.<\/p>\n

He would also become the first sitting member of Congress to marry a partner of the same sex, in 2012, when he wedded husband James Ready.<\/p>\n

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Long a crusader for liberal causes, he also had cautions for his party as recently as this year, when, while in hospice care, he told CNN Democrats were going too fast in a rush to the left on cultural issues, \u201csome of which the public isn\u2019t ready for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven where I agree with them in the end, I think they make a mistake by taking the most controversial parts of the agenda and turning it into a litmus test,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Born in 1940 in Bayonne, New Jersey, Mr. Frank wrote in his 2015 memoir that he was drawn to public life after Emmett Till, a Black 14-year-old from Chicago, was lynched by white men in Mississippi. Mr. Frank would volunteer in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964, though he acknowledged the fast-talking style was a challenge in the Deep South.<\/p>\n

He entered politics in 1968 as an aide to Boston Mayor Kevin White before winning a seat in the Massachusetts House in 1972, and his seat in Congress in the 1980 election.<\/p>\n

Some other members of Congress had been outed as gay before Mr. Frank, but he came out voluntarily, inviting a reporter to ask him about it.<\/p>\n

He responded, \u201cYeah, so what?\u201d<\/p>\n

He was the chief sponsor of 23 bills that were signed into law, with his signature legislation, the Dodd-Frank bill, crafted in 2010 with then-Sen. Christopher Dodd.<\/p>\n

Its goal was to end the notion of financial institutions as \u201ctoo big to fail\u201d \u2014 the mentality that led to the bailouts \u2014 by increasing asset holding requirements and scrutiny and creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.<\/p>\n

Read more DHS nabs Canadian man who voted in U.S. elections<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For more than two decades, former Rep. 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