Garrett Glaser was the first "out of the closet" local TV news anchor and correspondent in the United States. He "came out" while on the air on the Channel 4 News at KNBC-TV, Los Angeles, on December 5th, 1994, when he was 41.Garrett grew up in Manhattan in the early 1960's and knew he felt homosexual attractions by the age of eleven. He came out to his parents in 1967, at the age of 14. The first thing his mother told him was, "You're going to a psychiatrist right now young man and we're going to put a stop to this! Do you understand me?"Garrett received his high school diploma from New York's Dalton School and worked his way through the undergraduate program of the City University of New York at night, while working by day as a waiter at O'Neals' Baloon (sic) across from Lincoln Center. He graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Cinema Studies. His Master of Arts degree in Communication Management is from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication.Garrett traveled the world for four years as a correspondent for Paramount Television's Entertainment Tonight and later served as a business reporter for CNBC Business News, based in New York for eight years. Earlier, Garrett served as the Media and Entertainment News anchor for WABC-TV Channel 7 Eyewitness News (ABC) in New York, with his own five-minute segment daily. He was also a hard news reporter for Post-Newsweek's WPLG-TV Channel 10 Eyewitness News (ABC) in Miami/Fort Lauderdale. In the early days of his career, Garrett covered breaking news and the US Navy for WVEC-TV 13 News (ABC) in Hampton Roads, Virginia and served as a general assignment reporter for WPTA-TV 21 Alive Newsroom (ABC) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He also served as an off-air newswriter and story producer for WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Action News, Detroit (ABC).Garrett was the co-founder of the Electronic Media Task Force of the National Lesbian/Gay Journalists Association and was also the first person to "come out" to the entire radio and television news industry during a panel discussion in 1992 at the annual convention of the Radio/TV News Directors Association in San Antonio, Texas.He estimates he has interviewed more than 1,600 celebrities during his career, including Elizabeth Taylor, Oprah Winfrey, Cher, Robert DeNiro, Diana Ross, George H.W. Bush, Tony Bennett, Mike Tyson, Warren Beatty, Garth Brooks, Robert DeNiro and Mick Jagger. He lives in San Diego with his partner of 25 years.
