Congress: Barney Frank's Pygmalion

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank disclosed his homosexuality in 1987 and was re-elected the next year by a 70% majority. Now the Democrat must again test his constituents' tolerance of his sexual habits. Last week, after the Washington Times broke the story, Frank admitted that in 1985 he paid for sex from a male prostitute who had advertised in a gay newspaper. The Congressman then hired him, with his personal funds, as a $20,000-a-year errand boy for his Capitol Hill apartment. In 1987, Frank said, he decided that the man was using the apartment for prostitution. He said he fired him.

"I was conned by a good con artist," Frank declared last week. "Thinking I was going to be Henry Higgins and trying to turn him into Pygmalion was the biggest mistake I ever made. I thought I could help him reform." Frank said he has had a faithful male relationship since coming out of the closet, and he will seek re-election in 1990. He expects voters to judge him on his record as a hardworking, liberal Congressman, and explains, "The public didn't suffer. I suffered."