Barney Frank

We have two options.

One, do nothing and let this market deteriorate and let jobs be lost and let people not be able to get loans, people not be able to buy cars, people not be able to shop in stores because that's what happens when credit dies.

Or we can put up some federal money.

The common theme in the bill, as I saw it, was to say to a great extent people who make decisions that are risky, which should be done in the business community, will not be able to escape the consequences of poor decisions because that way they'll make better ones.

Oh, I give myself a 10 for being smart enough not to answer that question.

Either you sound humble in a way that is literally incredible, not credible, or you sound arrogant.

I'll say none of the above.

And... What I realized was a lot of Americans were not homophobic but thought they were supposed to be.

And as more of us came out and our reality confronted the prejudice, we made great gains.

Well, I hate to say this, but the impression I get most is that their feelings are hurt.

Oh, you were rude to us.

You said we were fat cats.

You hurt our feelings.

Get over it.

I mean, I'm in the kind of business where people say rude things about us all the time.

I've said that to them.

Throughout the 70s, I became more and more an active and prominent leader on gay rights, and I was increasingly depressed by the disparity between my advocating the rights for everybody else and then denying myself any chance to participate in it.