The Caftan Chronicles

The Caftan Chronicles

My Not-So-Great Chat with LGBTQ Rights Legend Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

I'll just leave it at that and let you decide the rest.

Tim Murphy's avatar
Tim Murphy
Feb 02, 2026
∙ Paid

Hey Caftaners! I hope you’re well. Between the ice (making walking even a few blocks in NYC right now a frigid, messy ordeal) and the ICE, I mean, I don’t know about you, but shit just feels grim these days. So I’ll skip the wind-up and merely introduce my latest Caftan, which is with Rep. Barney Frank, 85. I would assume that if you’re roughly 45 or older, you know who he is. A New Jersey native, he came to Mass. to go to Harvard in the 60s and never left, serving first in the Massachusetts House of Reps through the 1970s, and becoming quite beloved by his constituents, and then in the U.S. House of Reps from 1981 to 2013. Over those decades, he became a revered “liberal lion” like Ted Kennedy.

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