Barney Frank Marries Long Time Partner

Congressman Barney Frank has become the first Member of Congress in a same-sex marriage: 

Rep. Barney Frank married his longtime partner, Jim Ready, in Newton, Massachusetts on Saturday evening.

Frank, 72, and Ready, 42, tied the knot at the Boston Marriott hotel in a ceremony officiated by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, his office announced in a press release.  More than 300 guests were in attendance.

Frank, who has decided not to run for re-election, is the first sitting member of Congress to enter a same-sex marriage.

Though he didn’t plan the wedding around his retirement, Frank has said that the timing worked out well.

“There’s an unintended benefit,” he told New York magazine earlier this year. “I want to get married. I do think, to be honest, if I was running for reelection, I might have tried to put the marriage off until after the election, because it just becomes a complication.”

Interesting that Frank would think it would be a “complication” to get married in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage has been legal for years. In any event, politics aside, I suppose congratulations are in order. In other news, The New York Times featured the wedding in its Sunday weddings section, although that in itself is not unusual since the Times has been writing up same-sex ceremonies for several years now.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. anjin-san says:

    Has the Republic fallen yet?

  2. G.A. says:

    Has the Republic fallen yet?

    Yup:(

  3. An average american says:

    Really?

    … meh.

    Stories about gay are so 1980’s.

  4. Gustopher says:

    I would suspect the Barney Frank views it as a complication because he’s an older gentleman, who has dealt with bigots for his entire life. Society is changing, and a big old gay marriage isn’t all that shocking or distracting in some places, but Frank’s experience tells him it would be a complication, since for most of his life it would be.

    Congratulations to Barney Frank and his husband. And one of the best wedding gifts will be that people just don’t care.

  5. bandit says:

    Now is this guy the one who got the pot possession charge broomed, the one Barney lied about Fannie Mae to protect or the guy who ran the prostitution ring out of his apartment?

  6. michael reynolds says:

    I knew something like this had happened, because right away my heterosexual marriage was destroyed!

  7. Michael,

    I hear it caused Donald Trump to go out and find a second mistress

  8. al-Ameda says:

    @michael reynolds:

    I knew something like this had happened, because right away my heterosexual marriage was destroyed!

    Thanks for the head-up, Michael. I think I still have time to file for divorce in New York before my marriage crumbles.

  9. DRS says:

    Somebody better warn Callista to step up the surveillance activities.

  10. LC says:

    First, I think Frank is probably the smartest and most politically astute member of the House and it is a damn shame that we are losing him – although I can understand his not wanting to spend another two years as Ranking Member under the Chairmanship of Bachus, one of the dimmest bulbs in the House. (And, sadly, I suspect his retirement represents Frank’s assessment that the House will stay in Republican hands.)

    But in reading reports of the wedding, I noticed two things that I consider to be a bit odd about the reporting. First, he is described as marrying his “long-time” partner whom, according to one article, he met in 2007. Five years now qualifies as “long-term”?

    Second, his husband is 30 years younger than he is. In short it is a May-December marriage of the kind that usually attracts at least a few “trophy wife” comments and I couldn’t help thinking of Liz Taylor’s marriage to Larry Fortensky.

    Just a comment. I wish them happy.

  11. bandit says:

    @LC: Yeah – he’s so smart he doesn’t know what a prostitution ring is, what pot is, that he can’t ride in private jets owned by supporters, that Fannie and Freddie were insolvent, that First United was a money laundering scheme and who knows what else. If any other US rep had lied about Fannie Mae to protect his girlfriend’s job where exactly would he be now?

  12. Racehorse says:

    Who cares? Why is this even considered news?

  13. Budgie93 says:

    There’s a 30 year age gap between them? Woah.

    Love really is blind.