Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s office confirmed to The Daily Caller that the congressman is set to marry five-year boyfriend Jim Ready.
Frank, who is 71, has dated Ready, who is 42, since 2007. Ready lives just north of Massachusetts, in Ogunquit, Maine. Frank’s communications director, Harry Gural, told The Daily Caller that Ready “has a small business doing custom awnings, carpentry, painting, welding and other general handyman services. He is also a photographer.”
This winter, Frank announced that he will resign from Congress after 16 terms. (RELATED: Barney Frank: I don’t have any regrets)
Frank has represented the 4th Congressional District of Massachusetts since 1981, and is the most prominent openly gay politician in the United States. He will end his final term in January 2013.
When he announced his retirement in late Novemeber, he was clear that the move did not signal a retirement from public life, saying, “I am not retiring from advocacy of public policy. … I think I will have more impact on some issues.”
“There are other things I’d like to do in my lifetime before I retire,” Frank said, including academics, history and writing “about a lot of serious issues.”
The congressman’s office told The Washington Post that he and Ready plan to marry in Massachusetts, but did not specify in what town, or when. Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2004.
