Gay Rights Trailblazer Barney Frank Is Dead at 86

Barney Frank, a sharp-tongued "liberal lion" in Congress and a pioneer for gay rights on Capitol Hill, has died at 86, his sister confirmed Wednesday. The former Massachusetts Democrat, who entered hospice care at his Maine home last month, spent more than three decades in the House shaping policy on banking, housing, and LGBTQ rights. As chair of the House Financial Services Committee during the 2008 crisis, he co-authored the Dodd-Frank Act, the landmark law tightening oversight of Wall Street.

Frank, who first won his House seat in 1980, was in 1987 the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay (NBC News notes the page scandal four years prior had outed the first). When Frank in 1987 invited a reporter to his office to formally ask whether the congressman was gay, Frank responded, "Yeah, so what?" The AP reports that Frank's approach made him the most prominent gay leader in national politics for much of the 1980s and 1990s. He helped secure AIDS funding and pressed the Democratic Clinton administration, unsuccessfully, to lift a ban on gays serving in the military.

But there were low points, too, most notably an overwhelming 1987 House vote to reprimand him for poor judgment involving a male prostitute he hired in 1985. Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the Republican whip at the time, pressed for the more severe punishment of censure, which was rejected by a large margin; Frank held his seat easily for years. By 2007, Frank was the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, where he would leave his lasting policy mark as the US economy careened toward collapse. He worked with the Republican Bush administration to pass a rescue package, providing vital support to financial institutions but spurring a populist revolt that still courses through American politics.

Once the initial crisis eased, Frank helped develop the most significant reform legislation since the New Deal. Working with then-Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, Frank put together the Dodd-Frank Act, which would enhance consumer protections, impose new capital requirements for banks, and boost the ability of regulators to monitor risk. Frank became the first member of Congress to marry a same-sex partner when he wed Jim Ready in 2012. He declined to seek a 17th House term in 2012. In retirement, he defended Dodd-Frank, criticized both the left and right, and completed a forthcoming book arguing that Democrats must recalibrate to protect democracy. He's survived by Ready and his siblings.