Politics
Frank not interested in chairing Federal Reserve
Former lawmaker cites age, GOP opposition as reason he’d decline


Barney Frank (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
President Obama has yet to make a decision on who he’ll name as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, but one financial guru not interested in the job is retired gay Rep. Barney Frank.
Frank, who formerly represented Massachusetts as the longest-serving openly gay member of the U.S. House, told the Washington Blade on Tuesday he has no interest in the job.
“It’s not on anybody’s radar screen,” Frank said. “If it were offered it, I would not be interested. It’s a 14-year term. I’m 73 years old. It ought to be a felony for a 73-year-old to accept a 14-year term, and I’m just tired out after 45 years.”
Some see Frank as a good fit as for chair of the Federal Reserve because he served as chair of the House Financial Services Committee and took a lead role in crafting financial reform legislation commonly known as Dodd-Frank.
But Frank said he also doesn’t have the expertise to head up the governmental institution responsible for serving the central banking system of the United States.
“To be honest, I am not an economist and I’ve studied a lot of stuff, but I think you have to be a better technical economist than I am to even be considered,” Frank said.
Further, Frank said “there’s no remote possibility” that Obama would name him for the position because Republicans would obstruct his confirmation in the Senate.
“Given the fear that most Republican senators have of alienating the right-wing who vote in their primaries, there’s no way any of them would want to be accused of having supported me,” Frank said. “Voting for a chair of the Federal Reserve in a same-sex marriage would be toxic in their primaries.”
Speculation on who would be named the next chair of the Federal Reserve intensified on Sunday after Larry Summers, former director of the White House National Economic Council, withdrew his name from consideration before Obama named anyone to the post.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday Obama hasn’t made a decision on who’ll be the nominee and the selection process is ongoing.
“And obviously Larry Summers has asked not to be considered and the process moves forward,” Carney said. “And when the president has an announcement, thatās when youāll hear what his decision is.”
Another widely cited possibility as successor for outgoing chair Ben Bernanke is Janet Yellin, vice chair of Ā the Federal Reserve. According to the Huffington Post, she’s already received an endorsement from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Frank said he backs the idea of selecting a nominee such as a woman or an openly gay person who would break the glass ceiling for a minority group.
“I think that’s true of any position,” Frank said. “I think diversifying beyond straight white guys is a good thing. It’s great President Obama has made some progress on that. But yeah, I’m sorry Chris Quinn didn’t get elected mayor of New York. I was a believer.”
Congress
Five HIV/AIDS activists arrested during USAID hearing
Protesters demanded full restoration of PEPFAR funding

Capitol Police on Thursday arrested five HIV/AIDS activists who disrupted a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that focused on the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The activists ā including Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell, Housing Works CEO Charles King, and ACT UP NY co-founder Eric Sawyer ā started chanting “PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) saves lives. Restore AIDS funding now” shortly after Max Primorac, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, began to testify. They also held posters that read “Trump kills people with AIDS worldwide.”
The Trump-Vance administration last month froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for at least 90 days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later issued a waiver that allows PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze.
The Washington Blade last week reportedĀ PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of a lack of U.S. funding. The Trump-Vance administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID, along with the suspension of nearly all U.S. foreign aid, has been “a catastrophe” for the global LGBTQ rights movement.
“I guess these guys don’t watch the news. They didn’t realize that PEPFAR was one of the many programs that did prove to be lifesaving, so the funding was restored,” said U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, after Capitol Police removed the activists from the room. “Somebody better give ’em a link to … I don’t know, maybe Fox News or something like that.”
Protesters interrupt a House hearing on USAID spending, demanding that funding be restored to PEPFAR, but "the funding was restored" says Rep. Brian Mast. pic.twitter.com/9bQduNEwnQ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 13, 2025
Russell and King are two of the dozens of HIV/AIDS activists who protested outside the State Department on Feb. 6 and demanded U.S. officials fully restore PEPFAR funding.
Politics
Trump picks Richard Grenell as interim Kennedy Center executive director
President proclaimed “no more drag shows” at D.C. institution

President Donald Trump on Monday picked Richard Grenell to serve as interim executive director of the Kennedy Center, just days after appointing himself chair the national cultural center and removing several members of the institution’s board of trustees.
Grenell is an openly gay diplomat and fierce ally to the president who served in high profile roles, including as acting director of national intelligence, during his first administration.
“Ric shares my vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American arts and culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ā ONLY THE BEST. RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!”
In a previous post announcing his takeover of the center and purging of Democratic board members including appointees of former President Joe Biden , Trump wrote “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured drag shows specifically targeting our youth ā THIS WILL STOP.”
Board members oversee the administration of federally appropriated funds for the āoperation, maintenance, and capital repair of the presidential memorial as well as its trust-funded artistic programming,ā per the 2025 fiscal year budget justification to Congress. Together with previous honorees, they are responsible for selecting new Kennedy Center Honors recipients each year.
The federal government provided about $45 million in funding to the center last year, roughly a fifth of its $268 million operating budget in 2024.
On Wednesday, Grenell said on X that he was briefed by the center’s CFO and learned there is “ZERO cash on hand. And ZERO in reserves. And the deferred maintenance is a crisis.”
I was briefed today by the CFO of the Kennedy Center on its financial situation.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) February 13, 2025
She told me there is ZERO cash on hand. And ZERO in reserves. And the deferred maintenance is a crisis.
For the past months theyāve been digging into the DEBT RESERVES.
We must fix this greatā¦
Congress
House Dems urge OPM not to implement anti-trans executive order
Authors were Dem. U.S. Reps. Mark Takano (Calif.), Jamie Raskin (Md.), and Gerald Connolly (Va.)

Three House Democrats including Congressional Equality Caucus Chair Mark Takano (Calif.) issued a letter on Wednesday urging the Office of Personnel Management to not implement President Donald Trump’s anti-trans executive order, “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
Also signing the letter were U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly (Va.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.
The lawmakers wrote the order “unlawfully attacks the civil rights of transgender Americans” while the White House’s corresponding memo and guidance “implements unlawful discrimination by the federal government against transgender people in the civil service and the provision of federal services.”
Specifically, they call unconstitutional the directive for agencies to “end all programs, contracts, grants, positions, documents, directives, orders, regulations, materials, forms,
communications, statements, plans, and training that ‘inculcate’ or ‘promote’ ‘gender
ideology’āwhich the Executive Order defines broadly to encompass acknowledging the simple
existence of transgender people and gender identity.”
āWe are deeply alarmed by these and other actions the Trump Administration has taken in its first few weeks to eliminate all government support for the transgender community, including efforts designed to enforcing the rights and support the health of transgender individuals,” the congressmen wrote.
They added, “We are also appalled by the Administrationās attempts to weaponize federal agencies to target the transgender community for discrimination and exclusion. These actions contradict federal law, Supreme Court precedent, and most importantly the Constitutionās guarantee of equal protection under the law.ā
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