ACLU Counsel and Gay Rights Champion Found Dead In DC Park
8/30/09-by Paula Brooks, www.lezgetreal.com
Washington DC police sources are telling Lez Get Real, that a body found Friday in a wooded section of Rock Creek Park is that of ACLU State Legislative Counsel Larry Frankel.
Rock Creek Park is located in Northwest DC.
Police say that a jogger running along a path in the park just south of Beach Drive and north of Massachusetts Ave NW, about 11 a.m. Friday saw something floating in the water that later turned out to be Frankels body.
US Park Police initially responded to the joggers 911 call and were later joined on the scene by investigators from the homicide division of the DC Metro Police.
A Metro DC Police spokesman confirmed this morning that the body was indeed that of Frankel and said that homicide detectives are continuing to investigate his death, but would offer no cause of death or comment further on the case pending official release of autopsy results.
Frankel, 52, had served as both Executive Director and Legislative Director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania for many years before becoming the State Legislative Counsel for the National ACLU here in Washington. Frankel joined the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office last year and oversaw the support to the 53 ACLU affiliate offices across the country.
Pennsylvania Rep Mark Cohen said on his blog this morning that Frankel was a “proud gay man, he was militant on the issue of gay marriage, believing that it was far more important to keep the legal option of gay marriage by defeating a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage than to enact civil unions legislation, an uphill battle that some, including myself, thought was winnable. His views on gay marriage were somewhat vindicated when four New England states and the state of Iowa legalized gay marriage this year.”
