Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank says
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are welcome at
his July wedding, provided they leave their Secret Service detail at
home.
The 72-year-old Frank will marry his
longtime partner Jim Ready in Massachusetts, the first state to
legalize gay marriage in 2004. The wedding will take place before
Frank leaves Congress but the congressman has said he won't seek
recognition of his marriage.
Speaking on C-SPAN's Newsmakers
on Sunday, Frank said of Obama's invite to the wedding: “If he and
Michelle wanted to come, I would be delighted and honored to have
them. But he will bring the Secret Service.”
“I don't want to be accused of having
shut down the entire region for a five mile radius on a holiday
weekend,” he said. “I don't want my guests going through a
magnetometer.”
“[I]t would ruin the party to have
the Secret Service” there.
“I'm not critical of [the Secret
Service], but they can go take their layered protection of the
president somewhere else. Not to my party,” he added.