{"id":242864,"date":"2026-05-25T06:35:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T06:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/242864\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T06:35:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T06:35:52","slug":"barney-frank-longtime-mass-congressman-with-bayonne-roots-dies-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/242864\/","title":{"rendered":"Barney Frank, longtime Mass. congressman with Bayonne roots, dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barney<\/a>Barney Frank file photo 2005. Photo by Dennis McGrath.<\/p>\n

Barney Frank,\u00a0a pioneering openly gay lawmaker\u00a0and influential liberal voice in Congress, died May 19,\u00a0at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Born in Bayonne, New Jersey,\u00a0in 1940,\u00a0Frank\u00a0grew up\u00a0in\u00a0a working-class Jewish household\u00a0before building his political career in Massachusetts. He\u00a0served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1987, Frank became one of the first members of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay. As a\u00a0result, his decision marked a turning point\u00a0for\u00a0LGBTQ visibility in\u00a0national\u00a0politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For\u00a0three\u00a0decades in office, Frank\u00a0shaped Democratic policy on economic and social issues. From\u00a02007 to 2011, he chaired the House Financial Services Committee as Congress responded\u00a0to the 2008\u00a0financial crisis.\u00a0Later, Frank\u00a0pointed to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act as\u00a0one of his defining achievements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, Frank championed abortion rights, environmental protections, anti-discrimination\u00a0laws\u00a0and LGBTQ equality. He also pushed to repeal \u201cDon\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t\u00a0Tell,\u201d the policy that prevented openly gay\u00a0and bisexual people from serving in the U.S. military.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a fighter and fearless,\u201d Mary Bonauto, senior director of civil rights and legal strategies at GLAD Law, a Boston-based LGBTQ advocacy organization, told NBC News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at his record more generally, you see his advocacy for people of color, women \u2014\u00a0it wasn\u2019t just gay people,\u201d Bonauto added. \u201cHe had his sharp eye on a lot of people and a lot of issues, and I think it\u2019s partly from his own journey.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After\u00a0retiring from Congress, Frank settled in coastal Maine. There,\u00a0he\u00a0stayed\u00a0active\u00a0as a political commentator and writer.\u00a0In a late April\u00a0interview with\u00a0Politico<\/a>, Frank spoke\u00a0candidly\u00a0about entering\u00a0hospice care while battling congestive heart failure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reflecting on\u00a0his decision to come out in 1987,\u00a0Frank said,\u00a0\u201cThe American\u00a0people are a lot less\u00a0homophobic\u00a0than they thought\u00a0they\u00a0were supposed to be.\u00a0More racist, unfortunately,\u00a0but less homophobic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2012. Frank became the first sitting\u00a0member of Congress to marry a same-sex\u00a0partner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even in his final\u00a0months, Frank remained\u00a0outspoken. He urged\u00a0Democrats to distance themselves from far-left positions.\u00a0Meanwhile, his\u00a0final book,\u00a0The Hard Path to Unity: Why We Must\u00a0Reform the Left to Rescue Democracy, is scheduled\u00a0for publication in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He is\u00a0survived by\u00a0his husband, Jim Ready.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barney Frank file photo 2005. Photo by Dennis McGrath. Barney Frank,\u00a0a pioneering openly gay lawmaker\u00a0and influential liberal voice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[94873,15434,94874,94875,94876,9,24,63,134,136,135,94877,13631],"class_list":["post-242864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-barney-frank","tag-bayonne","tag-gay-history","tag-lgbt-members-of-congress","tag-lgbtq-politics","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-tj-edmund","tag-u-s-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}