The New York Times on Instagram: "Barney Frank, the brassy, lightning-quick former Massachusetts representative who for decades was the most prominent gay politician in the U.S. and who was an author of the most significant overhaul of the nation’s financial regulations since the Great Depression, died on Tuesday at his home in Maine. He was 86. He said last month that he had entered hospice care with congestive heart failure. Frank, a liberal Democrat who represented a diverse suburban Boston district for 32 years, starting in 1981, was the first gay member of the House to come out voluntarily; others had been outed in scandals. His public declaration of his sexual orientation in 1987 — spurred by a fear of being outed, by the death of a closeted colleague and by his own determination to show that homosexuality was nothing to be ashamed of — helped normalize being openly gay in public life. “Prejudice is based on ignorance,” Frank told The Boston Globe in 2011, as he prepared to retire. “And the best way to counterbalance it is with a living example, with reality.” Read more about Frank’s life and legacy at the link in our bio. Photo by @susana_raab_"