In brief
Barney Frank, the first openly gay congressman in the United States and a key figure in financial reforms after the 2008 crisis, has died at 86. He served for over three decades and was known for his advocacy for LGBT rights and civil liberties. His sister and former colleagues remembered him as a compassionate leader who left a significant mark on American politics.
Former US congressman Barney Frank, who famously took on Wall Street and was one of the first known openly gay representatives, died on Tuesday night, US media reports. He was 86. Frank, a Democrat who represented southern Massachusetts in the House of Representatives for over three decades, had been in hospice care at his home in Maine since April. He will be remembered as a trailblazer for LGBT rights, as the first member of Congress in a same-sex marriage, and for helping to overhaul financial regulations after the 2008 financial crisis.He was, above all else, a wonderful brother. I was lucky to be his sister, Frank's sister Doris Breay told NBC Boston.Jim Segel, Frank's former campaign manager, noted, He certainly left a mark, and he was a leader on civil rights, on gay rights, on leading other marginalized communities, and then he helped the country get through the 2008 financial crisis.Frank served from 1981 to 2013 and was a major architect of the Dodd-Frank Act, which created new regulatory bodies and tightened restrictions on banks in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession. The Dodd-Frank Act, named for Frank and fellow Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, was a historic overhaul of banking regulations in response to the subprime mortgage crisis that helped trigger the 2008 Great Recession.In 2010, then-President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law, which Donald Trump partly preserved while also loosening some of the restrictions in 2018. On Capitol Hill, Frank was a vocal supporter of ending the don't ask, don't tell policy that kept gay and lesbian US military servicemembers from serving openly and fought for legislation that aimed to ban workplace discrimination against LGBT workers. Frank commented on prejudice, saying, Prejudice is based on ignorance... the best way to counterbalance it is with a living example. In recent interviews, he expressed hopes for a better political climate despite his disgust with current affairs. I'm filled with disgust at the current state, but optimism that it's going to get better, he told CNN's Jake Tapper earlier this month.
