Barney Frank Talks The Gay Agenda, Then and Now

"We're change agents. And a change agent always has to be on the offensive."

Rep. Barney Frank’s career has spanned nearly the entirety of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1973 to 1981 and then in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next 30+ years, from 1981 to 2013. He wasn’t the first congressman to come out of the closet, but he was the first to come out voluntarily, not following a scandal. (Barney came out in 1987. Another congressman, Gerry Studds, came out in 1983 after it was made public that he had had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male congressional page.)

Like any good politician, what do you do after announcing potentially game-changing news? You conduct a poll.

“Something like 45% of the people said they thought [coming out] would hurt me politically. But then they asked another question, Are you personally less likely to vote for him because he came out? 22% said yes. In other words, half as many people were personally anti-gay, but they thought others were. And it struck me at that point and has been confirmed ever since, that Americans were much less homophobic than they thought they were supposed to be.”

Barney joins us today to talk about being an openly gay politician in the ‘80s, how the AIDS crisis forced Congress to vote in a pro-gay way for the first time, and the current state of the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement.

Plus, Barney’s husband, Jim Ready, drops by to say hello.

I’ll never forget his husband, Jim, wearing a “Trophy Husband” t-shirt, walking into Barney’s office in the middle of our interview and Barney telling him, “I'm in the middle of a gay podcast".

And as always, if you enjoyed this interview, please help us to spread the word about our show. Text your friends, post on social media, yell at strangers on the street—we're an independent show and recommending our show is one of the biggest ways that you can help us grow.

I'm also very grateful to everyone who has signed up for a paid Substack subscription. If you haven't and can, please consider joining. We’ve been around since 2016. Joining our Substack ensures that we'll be able to continue documenting these stories for years to come.

Bonus: Has anyone been watching the new Julianne Moore show on Starz, Mary & George? It’s extremely queer and wonderful. I got to rave about the show last week on Pop Culture Happy Hour, an NPR podcast that I love. You can check that out here…but only after you listen to my interview with Barney Frank.

This is the final episode of our season. Thank you so much for listening. I’m looking forward to staying in touch while I work on our next one.

Much love,
Jeffrey @jeffmasters1

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