Who was Barney Frank: Barney Frank, the sharp-tongued Massachusetts congressman who spent 32 years daring America to see both its gay citizens and its banks more honestly, died Wednesday at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86. His friend James Segel confirmed the death, weeks after Frank publicly announced he had entered hospice care with congestive heart failure.
In a political era that often rewards caution and punishes candor, Barney Frank was an anomaly — a man who said exactly what he meant, meant exactly what he said, and somehow kept winning. His passing closes a chapter in American political history that touched LGBTQ rights, financial regulation, and the very idea of what an openly gay man could accomplish inside the most powerful legislature on earth.
