"I didn't think I was a good candidate," Frank says. "But even though its usually a disadvantage to be from another state, in Beacon Hill everyone is from somewhere else, so it didn't hurt me."

Two years in the state House, however, made him realize he needed law school experience to be an effective politician. Frank returned to Cambridge in 1974, this time to enter the Law School's hallowed halls.

"I was probably the oldest one there," he says. "But I was going to be making laws. And as long as I was going to do it, I might as well do it well."

Political Career

And Frank's Law School experiences led him directly to Capitol Hill, where he has served ever since. But his time in the House has not been without its trials and tribulations.

In 1989 it appeared his career might be over when certain details of his personal life became public.

Frank admitted to having had a sexual relationship with male prostitute Steven Gobie, whom he then hired as a personal aide and driver, paying him out of personal funds.

Frank told the media that he had ended the relationship as soon as Gobie became his aide, and had subsequently fired him when learned Gobie was using his apartment for prostitution.

The allegations set off a 10-month investigation by the House Ethics Committee which resulted in a 408-18 House vote to reprimand Frank for ethical transgresions.

Although Frank did not emerge from the scandal unscathed, he says the reputation he earned through the years eventually offset the public's further doubts and criticisms.

"I did things I shouldn't have done...the terrible mistakes I made were a result of my coming out." he says. "But even people that were most critical confined it to my private life."

Frank has always been a promoter of gay rights, but his coming out made him a more powerful spokesperson for the homosexual community.

"My personal relationships and my being openly a homosexual enhances it [my support for gay rights]," Frank says. "Having lived as a gay man in America, I have a degree of knowledge about the responsability [of this nation towards homosexuals]."

In the past, Frank has spoken at Harvard about the need for gay rights in the military. But he says he understands the dilemma the University is facing on the issue of the Reserve Officers Training Corps, which denies gays and lesbians the opportunity to participate in the financial aid for military service program.

"The University has a right to say what it wants," Frank says. "But it's difficult if you come here and need help and can't get it."