Garrett Glaser is a retired news reporter who was one of the first US television journalists to "

come out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

" publicly as a homosexual. His coming out occurred during the course of a speech he made before a large group of TV and radio executives at the 1992 convention of the Radio/TV News Directors Association being held in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

. Although Glaser co-founded the Electronic Media Task Force of the National Lesbian/Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) in 1990 and was later out to fellow journalists, he was not out to the public at large. That changed in 1994 when Glaser disclosed his sexual orientation during a live report on the ''Channel 4 News'' at

KNBC-TV KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Co ...

Los Angeles as he was reporting on the death of

Elizabeth Glaser Elizabeth Glaser ( Meyer; – ) was an American AIDS activist and child advocate married to actor and director Paul Michael Glaser. She contracted HIV very early in the AIDS epidemic after receiving an HIV-contaminated blood transfusion in 1981 ...

(no relation), an AIDS activist who founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Several months earlier, the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' had published a story on the front page of its "Calendar" section about Glaser's status as one of the few openly gay TV reporters in the nation, Earlier, in an unrelated case, Glaser had become embroiled in a public spat with ''Los Angeles Times'' media columnist

Howard Rosenberg Howard Anthony Rosenberg (born June 10, 1938) is an American television critic, author, and educator. He worked at '' The Louisville Times'' from 1968 through 1978 and then worked at the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1978 to 2003, where he won a P ...

over Glaser's coverage of the disappearance of music superstar

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

for KNBC. Glaser also worked as a TV anchor, reporter or producer at

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

, ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Par ...

'',

WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, WABC-TV maintains studios in the Hudson Square neighborhood ...

New York.

WPLG-TV WPLG (channel 10) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by Berkshire Hathaway as its sole broadcast property. WPLG's studios are located on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Pembrok ...

Miami.

WVEC-TV WVEC (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Hampton, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of ABC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios on Woodis Avenue in Norfolk; its transmitte ...

Norfolk VA.

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside independent station WMYD (channel 20). The two stations shar ...

Detroit. WPTA-TV Fort Wayne IN. WHLW-AM Radio Lakewood NJ and WVNJ AM- FM Radio Newark NJ. He started as a researcher at

WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS New York, is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–lic ...

's News Election Unit and as a broadcast transcriber for the CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite at CBS News headquarters in New York in 1976. He also freelanced as a crime reporter for ''The Villager'' and a feature writer for the ''

SoHo Weekly News The ''SoHo Weekly News'' (SWN) was a weekly alternative newspaper founded by music publicist Michael Goldstein and published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. Positioned as a competitor to ''The Village Voice'', it struggled financially. T ...

''.

Career in corporate communications

In 2005, Glaser left journalism and became a corporate media trainer and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) consultant for two US PR and lobbying firms. Among the corporate clients he counseled were Nestle,

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

, H&M,

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

Nikon (, ; ) is a Japanese optics and photographic equipment manufacturer. Nikon's products include cameras, camera lenses, binoculars, microscopes, ophthalmic lenses, measurement instruments, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, and equipment related to S ...

, and Continental AG. In 2007, he formed Glaser Media, a media training consultancy hired by

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...

companies to train executives to communicate more effectively with news reporters.

Notes

External links

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Facebook page (official)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glaser, Garrett American LGBTQ rights activists Living people American television journalists 1953 births Gay Jews American LGBTQ journalists CNBC people Jewish American journalists American male journalists 21st-century American Jews SoHo Weekly News people