Posted at 02:03 AM ET, 07/08/2012 By The Reliable Source:
It was by choice that Rep. Barney Frank came out of the closet 25 years ago — not the first gay congressman, but the first to announce voluntarily that he was gay.
On Saturday, he took another deliberate first step: By
exchanging vows in Massachusetts with his longtime boyfriend Jim Ready
six months before his planned retirement, Frank will spend the rest of
his time in office as the nation’s first congressman in a same-sex
marriage.
“I think it’s important,” he told New York magazine in April, “that my colleagues interact with a married gay man.”
About 300 friends and relatives gathered at the Boston Marriott hotel
in Newton, Mass., to see the veteran Democratic lawmaker, 72 — who has
represented that district since 1981 — wed Ready, 42, the owner of a
carpentry/welding/custom awnings shop and an avid outdoorsman.
Massachusetts Gov.
Deval Patrick, an early champion of the
state’s first-in-the-nation legalization of gay marriage, served as
officiant overseeing the rather personalized ceremony, according to the
congressman’s office:
Do you promise to love each other and be each other’s best friend,
In sickness and in health,
In Congress or in retirement,
Whether the surf is up or the surf’s flat,
For richer or for poorer,
Under the Democrats or the Republicans,
Whether the slopes are powdery or icy,
Whether the book reviews are good or bad,
For better or for worse,
On MSNBC or on Fox,
For as long as you both shall live.
Otherwise, sounds like it was just your average Beltway power-broker
wedding: The grooms were hoisted in chairs during the Horah, we’ve
heard, and
Nancy Pelosi cut a rug on the dance floor to some swing tunes. Other guests included Sen.
John Kerry; Reps.
Bill Keating,
Rosa DeLauro,
Anna Eshoo,
Eddie Bernice Johnson, and
Jim McGovern; and D.C. strategist types
Hilary Rosen,
Robert Raben,
Steve Elmendorf and Frank’s sister
Ann Lewis.
Frank announced last fall that he would not seek reelection this
year, citing the rigors of the job and his desire to devote more time to
his personal life. He and Ready, who met at a fundraiser in 2005, have
been a couple since 2007.
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