By Alliance for Sustainability President Terry Gips
While we’re grieving the loss of former US Rep Barney Frank at the age of 86, we are celebrating the gift he gave by being the unflinching human rights and LGBTQ+ leader who successfully blazed a path for all of us to walk for generations to come. I believe he was able to accomplish so much thanks to his unrelenting humor and conviction.
We’ll explore these but note this short but towering, battle-tested progressive icon also left us with words that might surprise some of his LGBTQ+ and progressive colleagues, providing important wisdom to ponder as we seek to overcome Uncivil Wars.
Even as a Youth, He Was a Fighter with a Cause: More than Bend the Arc of Justice
There was no one like him – the gruff, acerbic, brilliant, funny working class guy from NJ who battled his way to become a Harvard U. and Harvard Law grad. As he often reminded people, “I’m a left-handed gay Jew. I’ve never felt, automatically, a member of any majority.”
As his NY Times obituary points out, “He was never shy. Even as a youth, he described himself as a ‘counterpuncher, happiest fighting on the defensive’ on behalf of the vulnerable. At the time, that mostly meant racial minorities.”
“When he was introduced in 1950 to a scout for the New York Yankees, he challenged the man to explain why the team had no Black players. As a 15-year-old, he was profoundly moved by the lynching in Mississippi of Emmett Till, a Black teenager close to his own age; that led him to participate in Freedom Summer in 1964, registering Black voters in Mississippi.”
“Being both gay and Jewish, it never seemed possible that I could be elected to anything,” he said. He expected that he would always be closeted and never have much of a life outside of work.
A Profile in Courage = Brilliant Beyond Words + Ferocity for Human Rights + Humor
I had the privilege of working on various issues with Barney while I served as a Congressional aide to Democratic US Reps Abner Mikva and John Krebs. He is a true profile in courage as he overcame so much hate to become both a trailblazer and progressive Democratic House leader from Massachusetts. He became the first elected member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay and then the first to marry a gay partner.
For decades he was hailed and derided as “the most prominent gay politician in the country,” points out the NY Times. Conservative Republican US House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas called Mr. Frank “Barney Fag” in a 1995 interview with radio broadcasters. Barney’s life tells much of the history of being gay in America because he literally made it.
But he was far more than that. He was the co-author of the famous Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which the NYT labeled “the most significant overhaul of the nation’s financial regulations since the Great Depression.” And he also succeeded as a fierce advocate for affordable housing, with much of our present affordable housing due to his unrelenting commitment.
“Prejudice is based on ignorance,” Mr. Frank told The Boston Globe in 2011 as he prepared to retire. “And the best way to counterbalance it is with a living example, with reality.” And that he did.
Unceasing Sharp Humor
To spend a few minutes with Barney, whether in person or in Congressional hearings, meant being treated with or targeted by his irrepressible humor. He was frequently voted the “brainiest,” “funniest” and “most eloquent” member of the House in Washingtonian magazine’s annual poll of Capitol Hill staffers.
In 2009, when a voter asked Mr. Frank why he was supporting Mr. Obama’s proposal for mandating health care coverage, which she described as “Nazi policy,” Mr. Frank responded, “On what planet do you spend most of your time?”
During the Clinton impeachment proceedings he quipped at one point that he couldn’t finish reading the Starr Report, a graphic account of Mr. Clinton’s involvement with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, because it contained too much heterosexual sex.
Referring to the Moral Majority, the conservative Christian organization that opposed abortion but also opposed child nutrition programs and day care, Mr. Frank said in 1981: “From their perspective, life begins at conception and ends at birth.”
Of the flawed intelligence behind the US-led invasion of Iraq that led to nearly a decade of combat, he said the problem “is not so much the intelligence as the stupidity.”
Barney’s Advice for Overcoming Uncivil Wars and Winning
As he was entering hospice care in late April, Barney finished a book due out in September that has an interesting perspective for our series, The Hard Path to Unity. Given his progressive cred as a history-making LGBTQ+ and human leader his perspective might surprise many.
The NY Times said the premise of the book is that “the political left, of which he was a member in good standing, had sometimes gone too far in pushing divisive causes, like transgender athletes’ participation in sports, and making them a litmus test.”
“Slow down, he advised, and find common ground. Rather than focusing on cultural flash points, build support with something practical; instead of demanding Medicare for all, for example, start by reducing the age of Medicare eligibility.”
Some on the left may challenge these as giving in. Others may say this is what Americans have been clamoring for unsuccessfully. What do you think? Let us know and we’ll share your thoughts as we seek to overcome Uncivil Wars.