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Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who spent more than three decades in Congress and helped shape landmark financial reform, has died at 86.
His family confirmed he passed away Tuesday night at his home in Maine after entering hospice care last month for congestive heart failure.
Frank represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House from 1981 until his retirement in 2013. He rose to chair the House Financial Services Committee during the 2008 financial crisis.
He co-authored the sweeping Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, which imposed stricter rules on Wall Street and sought to protect consumers after the collapse of the housing market.
He also broke barriers in American politics. In 1987, Frank publicly came out as gay, becoming the first sitting member of Congress to do so voluntarily. Later, in 2012, he became the first member of Congress to marry a same-sex partner when he wed James Ready in Massachusetts.
Reflecting on his decision to come out, Frank once told The Boston Globe: "If you ask the direct question: 'Are you gay?' the answer is: 'Yes. So what?'" His openness made him one of the most prominent gay politicians in the country during his tenure.
Born Barnett Frank in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1940, he graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School before entering politics. He served in the Massachusetts Legislature in the 1970s before winning his House seat in 1980.
Frank's career was marked by both controversy and achievement. He faced scrutiny in the late 1980s over a personal relationship that led to a House Ethics Committee investigation, which ultimately recommended only a reprimand. He remained a powerful voice on Capitol Hill until announcing his retirement in 2011.
In one of his final interviews earlier this month, Frank joked about his legacy with characteristic humor: "I have been trying to decide, by the way, personally, whether it's better to be an icon or an emoji."
He is survived by his husband, James Ready, and his sister Doris Breay, who remembered him simply as "a wonderful brother."
