First Openly Gay US Congressman Dies at 86

By Alex Miller

On Background:  Barney Frank, former Representative for Massachusetts’ Fourth District, passed away at his home on May 19^th from congestive heart failure, while in hospice care.  The 16-term legislator served in the US Congress from 1981-2013, and was the first national politician to come out as gay, in an interview with the Boston Globe in 1987.  He is survived by his husband, James Ready, whom he married in 2012.  Frank was well-named, a forthright, brass tacks, down-to-earth politician who never quite dropped the North Jersey accent of his Bayonne birthplace, migrating to Massachusetts to attend Harvard, then staying to work as Chief Assistant to Boston Mayor Kevin White.  He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1972, and served for eight years until his election to Congress.

The Lede:  Barney Frank’s passing occurs under a square (90 degrees) between Jupiter (21 Cancer) and dwarf planet Eris (25 Aries) which aligns with the US natal Mercury (24 Cancer) opposed (180 degrees) Pluto (27 Capricorn), depicting the death (Pluto, modern lord of death) of a politician (Jupiter) who was a voice (Mercury) for marginalized, disrespected populations (Eris), specifically, the LGBTQ community, of which he was a member.

In Brief:  Transit Saturn (11 Aries) squared the US natal Sun (13 Cancer) and opposed its natal Saturn (14 Libra) signals a focus (Sun) on the passing (transit Saturn, ancient lord of death) of a government official (natal Saturn).  Born 31 March 1940 (no time available), transit Saturn also aligns with his natal Sun (10 Aries), semisquare (45 degrees) the natal Venus (25 Taurus)/Mars (29 Taurus) conjunction, reflecting his status as a beloved (Venus) champion (Mars) of his community, as a cofounder of the Congressional Equality Caucus, pushing for marriage equality for same-sex couples.

Deep Dive:  Death is an exceedingly personal experience, and it would be remiss indeed of the cosmos not to take note of Barney Frank’s passing, on a personal level beyond his government employee status. 

And so we find a Grand Cross (1) composed of Venus (0 Cancer) conjunct asteroids Osiris and Anubis (both 8 Cancer), opposed asteroid Barney (2 Capricorn), with the crossbars formed by a conjunction of asteroid Rip (0 Aries) and Neptune (3 Aries), and asteroid Requiem (3 Libra).  Osiris and Anubis are named for the ancient Egyptian god of the dead and the deity governing funerary rites, respectively, while Requiem is named for the funeral mass for the dead, and Rip acts as a death indicator in the form of the acronym RIP, “Rest In Peace,” a common tombstone inscription.  (One might think the cosmos is laying on the “death” theme rather thick here, with no less than four mortality indicators ganging up on an asteroid representing the deceased, but such repetition is common in passing charts.)   Neptune relates to his passing while in hospice, and Venus is another marker of the affection and esteem in which he was held.

Not to be outdone, the Sun (28 Taurus) is exactly squared asteroid Franck (28 Leo), an alternate spelling of his surname, granting Barney Frank the spotlight (Sun) one final time.  In addition, asteroid Franke (24 Cancer) another surname variation, joins the more generic aspect of Jupiter squared Eris, to personalize the pattern to Barney Frank himself.

Frank’s cosmic bona fides as a gay man are well-evidenced by the natal Sun (10 Aries) in a T-Square (2) with asteroids Sappho (6 Libra), named for an ancient Lesbian Greek poet, and Eros (2 Capricorn), the acknowledged patron of same-sex relationships in Hellenistic Greece, making this attraction self-defining (Sun) for him.  His life’s work in the US House of Representatives as a member from the Bay State, despite his Jersey origins, is shown as asteroid Massachusetts (12 Capricorn) squared the Sun, and asteroid House (12 Scorpio) in inconjunct (150 degrees).

When Barney Frank made history by coming out as the first openly gay US Congressman in an interview with the Boston Globe on 31 May 1987, a remarkable cluster of Mercury (1 Cancer) with Mars (6 Cancer) and asteroids Barney (5 Cancer) and Eros (11 Cancer) tells the tale of Frank’s (Barney) statement (Mercury) of his sexuality (Mars) as a gay man (Eros).  An exact semisquare to Mercury from Venus in a precise triple conjunction with asteroids Boston and Newtonia (all at 16 Taurus) suggests Frank’s confidence in the affection (Venus) borne him by his constituents in Massachusetts’ Fourth District, which centers on the city of Newton (Newtonia), enabling him to confess (Mercury) his same-sex romantic attraction (Venus) to the Boston Globe (Boston) reporter (Mercury) with political impunity.

Notes:  (1) A Grand Cross is a major pattern comprised of four or more points at roughly 90 degrees equidistant from each other; this dynamic interaction can create stress, but also prompts action and motivates growth.

(2) A T-Square is a dynamic pattern composed of two or more planets in opposition (180 degrees), each squared (90 degrees) a third.  It represents stress and conflict, with the fulcrum point (at the square) offering a possibility of resolution.

Sources:  reporting from ABS News; biography from Wikipedia; chart data from serennu.com; graphic images by author

Title Image Credit:  drawn by Chat GPT