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Barney Frank Delivers 13th Annual Rauh Lecture

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), one of the leading liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives, is the most prominent openly gay politician in the United States and serves as the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee.

Frank has been outspoken on many human rights issues including gay and lesbian rights. He said in a 1996 interview: "I’m used to being in the minority. I’m a left-handed gay Jew. I’ve never felt, automatically, a member of any majority."

The Congressman has focused his efforts on opposing discrimination, providing fair treatment for immigrants, improving both the quantity and quality of healthcare in the U.S., and formulating an international economic policy that combines support for economic growth with respect for economic fairness and environmental protection. He frequently writes about politics with an emphasis on how people can best seek political change. He has advocated not just for gay rights but champions civil rights wherever they are threatened.

In his freshman year in Congress, he was voted the outstanding freshman in a survey conducted by Public Television, and a recent evaluation of Congress, The Almanac of American Politics, described Frank as "one of the intellectual and political leaders of the Democratic Party in the House, a political theorist and pit bull at the same time." Politics in America noted "Frank's penchant for trying to match liberalism with hard nosed pragmatism in order to move the legislative ball."

In 2004, a survey of Capitol Hill staffers published in Washingtonian magazine gave Frank the title of the most intelligent member of the House of Representatives.

Barney Frank was born in Bayonne, New Jersey and was educated at Harvard College, graduating in 1962. He taught undergraduates at Harvard while studying for a PhD but left in 1968, before completing his degree, to become the Chief Assistant to Mayor Kevin White of Boston, a position he held for three years. He then served for one year as Administrative Assistant to Congressman Michael J. Harrington.

In 1972 Frank was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, where he served for eight years. During that time, he entered Harvard Law School and graduated in 1977. In 1979 he became a member of the Massachusetts Bar, before being elected to Congress in 1980 in the 4th District of Massachusetts. In 1987 he spoke publicly about his sexuality for the first time.

While in state and local government, Frank taught part-time at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Boston University. He published numerous articles on politics and public affairs, and in 1992 he published Speaking Frankly, an essay on the role the Democratic Party should play in the 1990s.