Trailblazing gay Jewish congressman Barney Frank dies at age 86

Barney Frank, the longtime Democratic congressman and leading liberal who brought new visibility to gay rights and crafted the most significant reforms to the financial system in a generation, has died at age 86.

After representing broad swaths of Boston’s suburbs in Congress for 32 years, Frank and his husband moved to Ogunquit, Maine. He entered hospice there in April with congestive heart failure and is survived by his husband, Jim Ready, and sisters, the longtime Democratic strategist Ann Lewis and Doris Breay, along with brother David Frank.

A self-described “left-handed gay Jew,” Frank was known for his acerbic wit, combative style and focus on marginalized communities. He represented the party’s left wing while keeping close with Democratic leaders who sometimes frustrated progressives.

The grandson of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Barnett Frank was born on March 31, 1940 in Bayonne, New Jersey. A high school debating star, he graduated from Harvard University and started working for the Boston mayor’s office in the late 1960s before becoming an aide to a Democratic US congressman for Massachusetts and later himself running for Congress, entering office in 1981.

He is best known as a pioneer for LGBT rights. After decades of grappling with his sexuality, he publicly came out as gay in 1987, the first member of Congress to do so voluntarily. With his 2012 marriage to Ready, he became the first incumbent lawmaker on Capitol Hill to marry someone of the same sex.