Barney Frank, Former Democratic Congressman, Dies at 86

Barney Frank, the longtime Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, died late Tuesday at age 86, according to Jim Segel, Frank’s former campaign manager and close friend. Frank represented broad swaths of Boston’s suburbs in Congress for 32 years before moving to Ogunquit, Maine, with his husband.

He entered hospice there in April with congestive heart failure and is survived by his husband, Jim Ready, and sisters Ann Lewis and Doris Breay, along with brother David Frank.

Born in 1940 in Bayonne, New Jersey, Frank entered politics in 1968 as an aide to Boston Mayor Kevin White before winning a seat in the Massachusetts House in 1972. He was elected to Congress in 1980. Frank joined the liberal Democratic Study Group and worked with then-Speaker Tip O’Neill. He later helped negotiate affordable housing tax credits during a major tax overhaul.

Frank 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. In an April interview as he entered hospice, Frank said he hoped he would be remembered for advocating progressive ideals through conventional political methods.

As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank helped develop the Dodd-Frank Act, which enhanced consumer protections and imposed new capital requirements for banks. During President Donald Trump’s second term, the administration has worked to roll back many of the legislation’s provisions. Frank remained engaged in politics after leaving Congress in 2012.