...Breaking up is hard to do...
Frank breakup ends an era in gay politics
By Bob Hohler, Globe Staff, 07/03/98
WASHINGTON - They were pioneers in national politics, an openly gay member of Congress and his male lover lobbying President Clinton in the Oval Office, shaping public policy, and demanding equal recognition for themselves and other homosexuals.
For nearly 11 years, Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, and his partner, Herb Moses, were the capital's most prominent and influential homosexual couple. Cheered by some, vilified by others, they changed the way gays and lesbians are treated in Congress, in Washington society, and in the public eye.
But they recently went their separate ways, leaving advocates for homosexual rights with no similar role models on Capitol Hill and ending a pivotal era in Frank's private life.
With the Washington townhouse that Frank and Moses owned up for sale yesterday, advocates for gay and lesbian rights rued the demise of their relationship and praised their contributions.
''They provided the definition for how elected couples can serve a public life with dignity and authenticity,'' said Kerry Lobel, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. ''They did it in ways nobody had done before, and they accepted nothing less than other elected couples should accept.''
Frank, in a telephone interview, said the reason he and Moses decided a few weeks ago to end their relationship ''isn't anybody's business.'' Frank, 58, said he and Moses split amicably, even calling each other's families ''to make sure we all understand we will be still be friendly and stay in touch.''
But the most Frank would say about the cause of the split was that ''recently things changed some.''
Moses, 41, who moved out of their townhouse near Dupont Circle and opened a pottery studio a couple of blocks away, could not be reached by telephone or at the studio.
Frank, who is looking for a new place to live after the townhouse is sold, said he told Moses he would take ''custody of annoying questions from reporters'' about the breakup. ''He's a private citizen again,'' Frank said. ''He doesn't have to answer them anymore.''
However, Moses rarely shied from public discourse after he hooked up with Frank in the summer of 1987. Rocked by allegations stemming from his relationship with Steven Gobie, a male prostitute, Frank ended decades of private torment that summer by publicly acknowledging he was homosexual.
The House later formally reprimanded Frank for his role in the Gobie affair. But by declaring his homosexuality and forming a relationship with Moses, then an economist in the Agriculture Department, Frank said, he embarked on a vital progression from the closeted, lonely life he had long endured.
''The relationship meant I was getting experiences that a lot of people have, and that was useful,'' he said. ''Before this, there was an incompleteness about my understanding of both the positive sides of a relationship and the real stresses and strains.''
As for the breakup, he said: ''It's an unhappy part of life's experiences, but it's still something that is there. Ten years ago, it would have been remote to me.''
Frank said the gains he has made over the last decade will help him in the next stage of his life. ''I regard the 10 years as a very positive thing,'' he said. ''The breakup doesn't undo any of the positive effects, and it doesn't mean I revert to the way I was 10 years ago.''
Frank and Moses often appeared inseparable during the decade, turning up regularly at White House dinners and other state occasions. They appeared on lists of top power couples in the capital. And Moses became the first partner of an openly gay member of Congress to receive spousal access privileges throughout the Capitol.
In one of their last public appearances, Frank and Moses attended a celebration in April of Israel's 50th anniversary as a nation.
Frank often invoked his relationship with Moses in House debates as part of their equal-rights campaign.
''We're pushing it,'' Moses said in a Globe interview in 1995, ''because we want to acknowledge we have a life as a way of humanizing the experience for others'' in homosexual relationships.
Moses, who left an executive post at the Federal National Mortgage Association to open his pottery studio, became increasingly engaged in the political struggle during his relationship with Frank.
Indeed, he began fund-raising for Representative Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat, when she was campaigning to unseat then-Representative Bob Dornan, a Republican, in 1996.
Moses launched the effort after Dornan, a virulent foe of homosexual rights, blasted Moses on the House floor. ''I know I speak for most members when I state that the only Moses we like to hear about on this House floor is our Moses of Exodus, Moses the lawgiver, Moses of the Ten Commandments,'' Dornan said. ''I am beyond annoyance hearing on this floor about Herb Moses.''
Lobel said Moses and Frank, in all their political activities, tried to improve the status of homosexual couples. ''They wanted the same treatment people gave Bill and Hillary and Ron and Nancy,'' Lobel said. ''And they did it with grace, just as they will break up with grace.''
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 07/03/98.
c Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company. |
