(AURN News) — Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank has died at 86, according to The New York Times.
Elected to Congress in 1980 and serving from 1981 until 2013, Frank became one of the nation’s most visible liberal voices and the first sitting member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay.
His openness helped normalize LGBTQ people in public office, and he fought for marriage equality, civil rights, women’s rights and dignity for LGBTQ Americans long before it was politically safe.
Frank, who was also Jewish, was a Harvard-trained lawyer with a sharp tongue and sharp mind. He helped reshape Wall Street after the 2008 financial crisis by co-authoring the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Raised in a working-class New Jersey family, Frank brought that outsider fire to Congress, defending working-class Americans while refusing to make himself smaller for anyone in power.
Rest in peace, Barney Frank.
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