U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said Friday he was trying to change the life of a male prostitute he had once patronized when he hired him as a personal aide, and later felt duped when he suspected the man was selling sex from Frank's Washington apartment.
Frank, a Democrat who disclosed his homosexuality in May 1987, said he became friends with the man after their first paid encounter, and was trying to wean him from a life of drugs and prostitution. He fired the man in August 1987 when it appeared his effort had failed."Thinking I was going to be Henry Higgins and trying to turn him into Pygmalion was the biggest mistake I ever made," Frank, 49, said during a news conference at his office in this Boston suburb. He referred to the character in the play "Pygmalion" and the musical based on it, "My Fair Lady," a professor who tries to turn a poor London woman into a lady.
He also said the aide offered on three occasions to arrange sex partners and Frank declined. "His suggestion that he was procuring sex partners for me is a lie," Frank said.
The incident was disclosed in Friday's editions of The Washington Times. Frank, 49, said he had no intention of resigning or dropping plans to run for re-election next year. But the state Republican Party said he should quit.
"I don't think I'm going to be heavily penalized by the voters for being suckered by a guy I was trying to help," he said.
The only other member of Congress to publicly acknowledge being a homosexual, Rep. Gerry Studds, easily won re-election after being censured by the House in 1983 for an affair 10 years earlier with a 17-year-old male House page. Like Frank, Studds is a Democrat from Massachusetts.
After acknowledging his sexual orientation, Frank won election to his fifth term in 1988 with 70 percent of the vote in the state's 4th District, which encompasses some Boston suburbs and parts of southeastern Massachusetts.
The Washington newspaper said the man was named Greg Davis, but Frank said his real name was Steve Gobie. There was no telephone listing for a Steve Gobie in Washington or its suburbs.
Frank said he met the man in 1985, and estimated his age at 26 or 27. The congressman admitted paying for sex with the man once, but said the relationship quickly became one of friendship.
He said he paid Gobie to do household chores, driving and other errands from his own money, not congressional or campaign funds. The total compensation, including cash and payment of lawyer and other bills, amounted to about $20,000, he said.
The newspaper said "Davis" indicated that Frank was aware that sex was being sold from his Capitol Hill apartment and was concerned that it might be discovered. Frank called the man's allegations that he was aware of the activity "absolutely untrue."
When asked if the revelation might force him to resign from Congress, Frank replied: "Of course not. Why should it?"