Barney Frank

I just read this article on Barney Frank and it talked about how he was the first openly homosexual congressman.Barney Frank had successfully addressed many issues during his terms in office but has also offended some gays and lesbians by taking a perceived moderate stance on the issue of homosexuals in the military. Barney Frank was very successful even though people knew that he was homosexual. When i read this article it made me happy to see that people for the most part did not judge Barney's character based on him sexuality.There were a couple rumors and the most serious callenge that Frank had was in 1989 when The Washington Times reported that he had hired a male prostitute, Steve Gobie, who he later retained as a household employee. The Times reported that Gobie had used Frank's apartment as a base from which to operate a prostitution business, a situation Frank claimed he knew nothing about. After nearly a year of investigation by a House ethics committee, Frank was officially reprimanded by a 408-18 vote of his colleagues. Efforts to impose more serious penalties failed. This is also good because it shows again how people saw Barney Frank as a person and did not base him off his sexuality. After this event happened, Frank Barney started to talk about Gay rights and started to get involved with this issue. After the vote, Frank began to speak out more openly and forcefully on gay and lesbian issues. In talking about his own homosexuality, he has said that he has "nothing to hide, nothing to advertise." He says little more about his personal life than that he "lives with Herb Moses," without defining that relationship in more detail. This shows that Frank tried to change things because he knew that discriminating against gays was not the right thing to do. This is exciting for me because it gives me hope that in the future gays and strait people will be complelty equal."Barney Frank." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .