Ann Rostow: Okay Boomer - San Francisco Bay Times

Former Senator Barney Frank is described as criticizing Democratic insistence on political correctness. The gay rights movement is characterized as having pursued attainable legal goals first, such as ending state bans on sodomy, while leaving same-sex marriage for later. The goals of the movement are said to have been achieved. The Employment Discrimination Act is criticized as a limited attempt to legislate niche job protections, with an emphasis on excluding transgender people to make the bill more acceptable. The gay rights effort is portrayed as holistic and shaped by societal changes after AIDS and increased visibility of gay and lesbian people, with lawyers and legal strategies playing major roles, including long-term focus on same-sex marriage.

"Okay Boomer Former Senator Barney Frank, who died of congestive heart failure on May 19, 2026, gave an interview to The New York Times shortly before his passing in which he decried the Democratic Party for insisting on a suicidal political correctness. Unlike the fight for trans rights, Frank said the gay rights movement started with attainable goals like ending state bans on sodomy, while carefully leaving same-sex marriage for last. He also said the goals of the gay rights movement have been achieved, and reminded readers of his pragmatic fight to keep transgendered men and women out of the text of the ridiculous "Employment Discrimination Act.""

"Ridiculous is my personal interpretation of that mindless attempt to legislate a limited niche of gay job protections that would never have passed the Congress of two decades ago and would have done next to nothing if it had. Yes, keeping trans people out of the bill made the Employment Nondiscrimination Act more palatable, just as removing anchovies from a kale and mud blender shake might make the drink go down easier. Meanwhile, it served as a talking point for the Human Rights Campaign's fundraising efforts for years. Don't get me started on this!"

"Frank, who was a courageous gay rights hero, employed the irritating habit of looking back over the years and reimagining the gay movement as a linear, consensus-driven plan through an orderly check list of strategic civil rights goals. In fact, the fight for gay rights was holistic, driven, among other things, by changes in society after AIDS, the increasing visibility of regular gay and lesbian people throughout culture, and, above all, by a comprehensive set of legal goals. If there were coordinated leaders in the effort, those weren't the politicians but the lawyers-and same-sex marriage was a major focus for decades."

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