GayPolitics.com

Out Congressman Barney Frank gave an interview to The Advocate, discussing his role rebuilding the American economy. Frank serves as the chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

The Advocate caught up with Frank as he was campaigning for re-election to his seat representing Massachusetts’ fourth district.

The paper writes:

Today, though, the 68-year-old congressman is busy trying to keep his job. There is little doubt that he will — Frank is beloved in the district he’s served since 1981 and is running against Earl Sholley, an all-but-ignored Republican — but Frank’s brand has taken a hit in recent months as Republicans “mounted a coordinated campaign to blame Democrats, with me as the point man, for the economic meltdown,” he says. In a poll taken a few weeks before the election, Frank was drawing only 55%. “I’m usually in the high 70s,” he tells me, “so that was a problem.”

Frank fought back the only way he knows how — vigorously, and with a heavy dose of comedy. He produced two memorable campaign commercials: In the first he uses vintage footage of circus elephants as a backdrop for criticizing Republicans who “did the bidding of the financial giants that wanted no regulation.” The second ad opens with an unhinged Bill O’Reilly screaming at Frank during an October edition of The O’Reilly Factor. “The right wing is losing control,” the narrator says. Frank ends the commercial with his trademark wit. “I’m Barney Frank — I approve this message and the chance to be on TV without interruption.”

In Washington, Frank used his position as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee to lash out at Republicans who blamed him for the subprime mortgage crisis. In an October hearing about the future of financial services regulation, Frank, looking particularly disheveled (wrinkled shirt collar, hair sticking up on the back of his head), gnawed on his gavel as Republican congressman Scott Garrett suggested that Democrats were not being intellectually honest and had blocked Republican amendments aimed at reining in Fannie May and Freddie Mac.

“The gentleman’s three minutes have expired,” a feisty Frank said. “And let’s talk about intellectual honesty…. He said earlier he’d offered amendment after amendment. In his head. But on the floor he offered one, which was withdrawn…. These amendments he talked about, in which he sort of implied that the Democrats had blocked the Republican efforts, are fantasies.”

Openly lesbian labor activist Mary Beth Maxwell, founding executive director of American Rights at Work, has emerged as a strong contender for President-elect Barack Obama’s choice as Secretary of Labor.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

For the rainbow cabinet of the nation’s first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you’ve probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son. And this founding executive director of American Rights at Work is about to get the full-court press.

Maxwell already had the strong backing of former Rep. David Bonior, who despite repeated attempts to get his name removed from consideration continues to be on the short list of potential labor secretaries. Bonior, 63 years old, says it is time for his generation to turn over power to a new generation, and Maxwell, whose labor-backed organization pushes for expanded collective bargaining rights, is his pick.

In August, the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute (GLLI) conducted a poll that indicated that 71 percent likely voters would support the appointement of an openly gay cabinet-level secretary if he or she was the most qualified person for the job. The Zogby poll collected responses from 1,089 likely voters.

GLLI, along with a coalition of partners, also launched the Presidential Appointments Project earlier this year to serve as a talent bank for openly LGBT professionals seeking appointed positions in the next presidential administration.

2008 Victory Fund endorsees Sen. Mark Leno and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano plan to introduce measures to suggest that Proposition 8 is an improper revision of the California Constitution. The measure, sponsored by Equality California and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, will be introduced on the second day of the 2009-2010 legislative session.

Out lawmakers Sen. Christine Kehoe and Assemblyman John Perez (both Victory Fund endorsees) co-authored the measure.

Via Towleroad, Equality California stated:

Significant revisions to the Constitution mandate distinct procedures and require a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature before going to voters. Both resolutions are sponsored by Equality California and were drafted by EQCA and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, plaintiff and lead counsel, respectively, in the marriage case brought before the California Supreme Court…. Leno’s Senate Resolution 7 and Ammiano’s Assembly Resolution (number to be assigned) specify that significant revisions to the Constitution mandate distinct procedures and require a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature before going to voters.

As out California Assemblyman John Laird nears the end of his final term, The Californian interviewed him on his experience in the legislature. Laird, who has reached his term limit, served as chair of the Assembly’s Budget Committee.

It hardly stood out that he was one of the first two openly gay men elected to the Legislature. But Laird, a Democrat from Santa Cruz, did launch a successful campaign to enact a series of bills aimed at more broadly protecting gays and others from discrimination.

Without a doubt, however, his biggest challenge was state spending and revenues, which he wrestled with for four years as chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee while state finances and the economy deteriorated.

“I’ve learned that the budget process is broken and dysfunctional,” said Laird. “I had always believed it, but it turned out to be bad.”

A blogger on Pam’s House Blend named Fritz praised Laird on being an effective LGBT leader — albeit one who may not have experienced a lot of time in the public eye.

Fritz writes:

Laird isn’t the type of leader that people are likely to worship and admire like a Martin Luther King or a Harvey Milk. He’s simply a man who works hard to get things done and can inspire others to do the same.

I suggest that instead of waiting for a leader with a magnetic personality and the power to motivate millions, we all look for those among us who are capable of creating change — however, slow and unglamorous that may appear.

The release of “Milk” has the mainstream media focused on Harvey Milk’s legacy as a trailblazer in politics.  He was indeed one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S., but he wasn’t THE first.  For the record:

– 1st—Kathy Kozachenko, an out lesbian, was elected to the Ann Arbor City Council in January 1974.

– 2nd—Elaine Noble, an out lesbian, was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in November 1974.

– 3rd—Allan Spear, an openly gay man who was closeted when he was first elected to the Minnesota Senate in 1972, came out in office in 1974 and was reelected in 1976.

– 4th—Jim Yeadon won his election to the Madison, Wisconsin City Council on April 5, 1977.

– 5th—Harvey Milk, an openly gay man, was first elected in November 1977 to a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

After the upcoming inaugural season, nearly 450 out officials will be serving in public offices across the U.S.