12/04/2008
Barney Frank Gets Happy
Benoit Denizet-Lewis talks to Barney Frank about his personal life, the recent economic bail-out, campaigning, and gay rights legislation in a new Advocate cover story.
In the piece, Frank discusses his House reprimand for a relationship with a male prostitute who said he ran an escort service out of Frank's apartment: " I was not emotionally healthy back when I was closeted. I was very fat, very disheveled, and I now know that job satisfaction is no substitute for personal satisfaction. [The scandal] never would have happened if I wasn’t closeted. When I had this secret, it stopped me from relating to people in a healthy way."
Frank also talks about what LGBT people should expect in the coming years.
"Once we get out of Iraq, we’ll get rid of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell'. There’s not going to be that much of a fight over that—people are over it. Plus it’s hard to argue today that 20-year-olds freak out at the sight of a gay guy. We will also get hate-crimes legislation with transgender included, and we will get employment nondiscrimination with transgender included -- if transgender people keep working for it and lobbying for it. Many people assumed that Nancy Pelosi and I could just deliver that, but that’s not how it works. I think they understand now that they have to go to each congressperson and make the case."
He's hopeful on the subject of marriage equality and the defeat of Prop 8: "When the conversation turns to gay marriage, Frank says he is 'cautiously optimistic' about Proposition 8 being defeated in California. 'I just wish more time had passed since it was legalized and this election,' he says. 'With discrimination, the fear always outweighs the reality of it. You just hope there’s enough time to show everyone that everything is fine, that gay marriage has no impact on heterosexual marriage.'"
Frank disagrees with protests as a means to achieve that goal: "[Some gay activists] have this notion that Martin Luther King and the rest of the gang just let it all hang out, that the civil rights movement was just a series of spontaneous outbursts. But it was in fact a series of strategic decisions.… I care deeply about [marriage equality], but the more deeply I care, the more sensible I have to be in achieving it...I’ve seen anti-Semitism essentially disappear in my adult life as a social and economic factor. There may be some nuts out there, but generally things are fine. I think the same thing will happen with gayness. We’ll get to a point soon enough where it’s not even an issue anymore. But progress can be slow. I filed my first gay rights bills in 1972 in Massachusetts. Forty years later, it would be nice to have this wrapped up and put to bed."
Harrumph! [the advocate]
You may have missed
Congressman Barney Frank Talks to Towleroad at the DNC [tr]
Posted 9:02 AM EST by Andy Towle in Barney Frank, Democratic Party, Gay Rights, Magazines, News | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Well done barney -- his comments on the closet, and on the Civil Rights Movement being a strategy, are bang-on.
P.S. > NICE TO SEE THE ADVOCATE FOCUSING ON POLITICAL NEWS AGAIN!
Posted by: Strepsi | Dec 4, 2008 9:57:19 AM
A gay person on the cover of the Advocate? Whats up with that?
Posted by: Tom A. | Dec 4, 2008 10:20:21 AM
A gay person on the cover of the Advocate? Whats up with that?
Posted by: Tom A. | Dec 4, 2008 10:20:34 AM
A gay person on the cover of the Advocate? Whats up with that?
Posted by: Tom A. | Dec 4, 2008 10:22:48 AM
"Frank disagrees with protests as a means to achieve that goal: "[Some gay activists] have this notion that Martin Luther King and the rest of the gang just let it all hang out, that the civil rights movement was just a series of spontaneous outbursts. But it was in fact a series of strategic decisions."
Rather a stupid statement if he is suggesting that the issue of gay marriage has only been dealt with by a "series of spontaneous outbursts" with no strategic decisions also going on along the way. The issue of legal gay marriage started a long time prior to Prop 8, and to allow a State Supreme Court decision to honor civil rights of gay couples to be overturned certainly warranted protests.
Posted by: Patrick | Dec 4, 2008 10:28:02 AM
"Frank disagrees with protests as a means to achieve that goal: "[Some gay activists] have this notion that Martin Luther King and the rest of the gang just let it all hang out, that the civil rights movement was just a series of spontaneous outbursts. But it was in fact a series of strategic decisions."
Rather a stupid statement if he is suggesting that the issue of gay marriage has only been dealt with by a "series of spontaneous outbursts" with no strategic decisions also going on along the way. The issue of legal gay marriage started a long time prior to Prop 8, and to allow a State Supreme Court decision to honor civil rights of gay couples to be overturned certainly warranted protests.
Posted by: Patrick | Dec 4, 2008 10:29:06 AM
"Frank disagrees with protests as a means to achieve that goal:..."
I think what Frank is saying is, for example, Rosa Parks did not just get angry one day and decide not to give up her seat. It was not a spontaneous protest. It was planned, and the bus boycott in the aftermath was planned.
Unfortunately, we don't have a strong leader(s) to follow. We have some good organizations and quite a few people to look up to, like Barney Frank, but no strong leaders like MLK.
I'm not even certain it's possible to have a strong LGBT leader like MLK in this place and time.
Posted by: Rick in Ohio | Dec 4, 2008 11:19:52 AM
So we aren't supposed to protest, but rather are supposed to be polite, follow the mainstream groups that have thus far been completely incompetent, and ask nicely for our rights? Come on, Barney. Everyone is well aware that Frank was the one to bring up removing gender protection from ENDA. Frank ignored the legal experts who say that the current ENDA is an empty shell of a bill, nothing more than symbolism allowing employers to fire gay folks because they are perceived as gay due to their gender expression. Frank criticized every move made toward marriage equality as being too soon.
I appreciate having an out person in such high places, and I appreciate the need to move with deliberation, but if we operate the way Barney wants to the glaciers will melt before we have anything approaching equality. The Civil Rights Movement of the 60s was very planned and deliberate, but they also didn't take no for an answer, and they didn't worry about offending bigots.
Posted by: Christopher, Louisville, KY | Dec 4, 2008 11:31:37 AM
he's corrupt just like the rest of them.
Posted by: marco | Dec 4, 2008 11:47:49 AM
It's my personal opinion that any civil rights/activism campaign needs both the polite respectable side and the bolshy shouting-with-placards side. Trying to get rid of one side or the other would be taking a side from a triangle, or a face from a pyramid. Any obstacle needs to be tackled from more than one place.
Anyway, read the article, he seems okay.
Posted by: Celia the lurker | Dec 4, 2008 1:44:08 PM
He's a buffoon who needs to stay away from our banking system, or what is left of it. He's not helped with a single gay rights issue his entire time in congress either.
Posted by: anon | Dec 4, 2008 5:21:46 PM
Tom, looking over my stack of Advocates here and there is a gay person on seven of the last eight issue. The one missing doesn't have a person on it.
Posted by: Owen | Dec 4, 2008 5:54:43 PM