All Thing’s Considered’s Tom Crann talks with Lee Greenfield, former state legislator from Minneapolis, about his friend Senator Allan Spear and Spear's posthumous autobiography "Crossing the Barriers." Spear was one of the first openly gay Americans serving in elected office.

Spear was both an educator and a Minnesota senator, who served almost thirty years in the Minnesota Senate, including nearly a decade as President of the Senate. He was instrumental in passing the 1993 Minnesota Human Rights Act, which guaranteed protection from discrimination in education, employment, and housing to LGBT Minnesotans.