Tonight the Boston Globe, through its Globe Insiders program, hosted a Globe Talk event with Barney Frank. The host was the political editor of Boston.com, the Boston Globe’s online news portal. The auditorium only held 160, so others at the ticketed event had to sit in an overflow location where the question-and answer session was piped in.
The program started with Frank explaining his status as a recent newlywed, and how DOMA was really unnecessary, since each state can set its own marital laws anyway. (For example, half the states have laws prohibiting first cousins from marrying each other, and the age of consent varies from state to state.)
He had mentioned that his wedding was, of course, a private affair, and the various papers who were covering the wedding as a society feature had agreed to embargo their coverage for a week, so people would read about it online before it even happened. As a news item, however, The New York Times did not honor the embargo, and sent photographers to cover the wedding as a news event. He was not amused.
A recent vote was held in the House regarding DOMA. The law was, of course, sustained, largely on party lines, and one Republican who had given them a nice gift had his gift returned to him after the vote. The other Congressman couldn’t understand why. “Did I offend you?” he asked.”The vote wasn’t meant to be personal.”
He then talked about working for Mayor White. This was in 1967, and race relations were becoming a serious issue. He related a story about people from Beacon Hill who had complained about a couple of sub par teachers at their neighborhood school. He suggested that they call the School Committee. They reported that they had in the past, but whenever they did, they just transferred the teachers to Dorchester, and that only made them feel guilty.
After that, he moved on to the freeway revolts and Frederick Salvucci, an anti-freeway activist who later became the state’s transportation secretary under Governor Dukakis. At the time, there were plans to have I-95 go through the middle of town, and an inner belt go through East Cambridge, the Fenways, and other urban neighborhoods. It got scotched, of course, but not before some initial land-taking. To this day, exit numbers on I-95 in Massachusetts skip several numbers because of the rerouting of I-95 along part of Route 128. I’ll write more on the freeway revolts later.
At about that time, he ran for Representative to the General Court, and served there until Father Drinan resigned his Congressional seat when Pope John Paul II demanded that all priests exit politics. In his introduction, he was credited for being the first Congressman to come out as gay, in 1987, but that honor actually belongs to Gerry Studds.
The financial crisis covered the rest of the evening.
These events are sometimes at the Boston Athanæum. That location is a bit more convenient, and they serve beverages. The Globe’s auditorium is a bit more comfortable, although it is a walk from the T.
