![]() ![]() He was thus the first openly gay congressman in the United States. He came out of the closet after another congressman died of aids. In the mid-1980s, the frumpish, overweight Frank gradually changed his appearance, losing 75 pounds and suddenly dressing stylishly. He was widely admired by the Asian community for his services as chair of the subcommittee that oversaw the bill granting compensation to Japanese-American for their internment during World War ii. In Congress, Frank was known for his liberal views. He first ran for Congress in 1981 in an open district and won a narrow victory. He excelled in the House and was an important early liberal voice on women's and homosexual rights. ![]() Frank then sought office on his own, serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1973 to 1981. He was the chief assistant to Boston Mayor Kevin White (1967–71) and later on the staff of Michael Harrington, a liberal Boston congressman. He worked as coordinator at Harvard for the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964, a cornerstone of the Civil Rights Movement, recruiting college black and white students – the whites overwhelmingly Jewish – to go down South. Frank received his undergraduate and graduate education at Harvard and his political initiation from Allard Lowenstein. His sister, Anne Lewis, was a long-term Democratic Party activist, serving both in the Carter and the Clinton White House. Frank was born in Bayonne, n.j., to a politically active family.
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