Barney Frank offers Democrats an important warning before the midterms

Opinion>Opinions - Civil Rights The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill Barney Frank offers Democrats an important warning before the midterms Comments: by Juan Williams, opinion contributor - 06/22/26 9:30 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Juan Williams, opinion contributor - 06/22/26 9:30 AM ET Comments: Link copied

FILE – House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. speaks during a markup of legislation on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Before his recent death, Barney Frank, the former Massachusetts congressman and gay rights advocate, issued a warning.

The key to Democrats winning elections, he said, is “to get rid of the perception… that the entire Democratic Party is committed to … very drastic social reconstructions that … [are not] politically acceptable.”

He was sounding the alarm that Democrats in the upcoming midterms can’t allow themselves to be put on the defensive over gays and transexuals in a new round of culture war fights. 

Given his trailblazing role on gay rights, Frank earned the trust necessary to warn Democrats to look out for Republican television ads mimicking the most famous ad of the 2024 campaign.

That Trump campaign ad made Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat’s presidential nominee, into an advocate for sex-change surgery. The ad falsely claimed that Harris supported federal taxpayer funding for sex change surgery for prison inmates and detained illegal immigrants. It featured the line: “Kamala [Harris] is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

This year, Democrats are at high risk of more culture war attacks. Republicans will do anything to avoid talking about gas prices, the war with Iran, and polls showing Trumps low approval rating.

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), the former chief of staff to President Obama, is also saying that Democrats need to avoid becoming victims of cultural issues.

“A problem for my party is, in the last four years, the only room we were comfortable in was the bathroom,” Emanuel said, referring to debates over single-sex bathrooms.

“If you want to run for president and do the job, you’ve got to be comfortable in the family room, the classroom, the boardroom, the break room, and the Situation Room, not just the bathroom,” Emanuel said.

Frank used his final days to speak out. His posthumously published book will be a part of his legacy. 

Emanuel is taking a bigger risk in speaking out. He is considering a 2028 run for the White House and wants support from all sides of the Democratic Party.

Both men rightly reflect concern that Democrats remain open to being portrayed to voters as invested in controversies about sex, race and guns instead of focusing on the cost of living, jobs and public safety.

As we head into the midterms the Democrats are at high risk on the issue of gay rights.  

Gallup recently reported a modest decline in support for same-sex marriage (it has fallen by 6 points from its 2022-2023 high). The percentage of Americans who view gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable is at its lowest point since 2016. Attitudes toward gender transition have declined even more sharply.

These numbers should not be exaggerated. Support for gay rights remains far stronger than it was a generation ago. But they should not be ignored either.

After the Supreme Court overturned constitutional protection for abortion rights in Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas said plainly in his opinion the court should reconsider protections for gay rights.

Concerned that rights once thought secure could be vulnerable, Congress passed the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act in 2022, formally protecting same-sex marriages under federal law.

That concern was not unfounded.

When a Republican member of Congress recently posted on social media that “homosexuality has no place in America,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R- La.) publicly rebuked the comment. Johnson, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, called the post “untoward.” 

He reminded Americans that we are called to love our neighbors and treat every person with dignity and respect.

That may seem like a small thing. It is not.

The fact that loud opponents of same-sex marriage now reject openly anti-gay rhetoric demonstrates just how much the country has changed.

Similarly, consider the history of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. It is easy to forget today but Obama publicly opposed same-sex marriage during that race. No one who knew the urbane, worldly Obama believed he harbored hostility toward gay people. But Obama and his supporters understood that electing America’s first Black president was already a difficult enough political challenge. Obama made a strategic calculation to take the issue off the table.

As president he later evolved on the issue. He endorsed same-sex marriage in 2012 after then-Vice President Joe Biden got out ahead of him and offered his approval.

Three years later, the Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges.

The point is that civil rights progress is not inevitable. And it can be reversed. Fights for equal rights require consistent tending of the garden to build and keep broad coalitions of support.

That is true as the midterms approach with an unpopular president already engaged in redistricting and calling for new laws with the potential to discourage voting.

The challenge for advocates of any cause is to sustain public support for them with wins at the ballot box.

That is a lesson Barney Frank understood. It is a lesson he is passing on to his heirs in the Democratic Party.

And it is a lesson all Americans should keep in mind as we celebrate how far we have come and face a midterm election that will shape the road ahead.

Juan Williams is senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a prize-winning civil rights historian. He is the author of the new book “New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement.”