bio
Joan M. Garry is recognized as one of the most vocal, passionate and effective civil rights leaders in America.
Joan began her career as part of the management team that launched MTV in 1981 and it is that experience that shaped her view that the media profoundly influence the attitudes and opinions of people on nearly every issue.
After fourteen years in cable television, holding a variety of executive positions in strategic planning and new business development, Joan set her sights on the nonprofit sector. With her 1997 appointment as executive director of GLAAD, on of the nation’s largest gay rights organizations, Joan realized she had connected her professional experience with her powerful voice. Before she knew it, she was debating Jerry Falwell and Bill O’Reilly on issues that mean something to her family and to families across America.
Joan plays a critical role as a visible media spokesperson and critic. In 1999, Entertainment Weekly featured her on its list of the 100 Most Influential People In Entertainment. Garry’s articulate advocacy has been featured across all national news networks, with notable media appearances including NBC’s Today; ABC’s World News Tonight; PBS’ The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; CNN’s NewsNight with Aaron Brown; CNBC’s Dennis Miller Live; numerous appearances on CNN, CSPAN, MSNBC (including Hardball with Chris Matthews) and Fox News Channel (including The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes).
Garry’s comments are frequently sought by leading newspapers, magazines and news services, including The New York Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, the Washington Post, USA Today, Time Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Advertising Age and PR Week, among others; and her thought-provoking op-ed essays have appeared in outlets such as The New York Times Times and USA Today.
During her eight-year tenure at GLAAD, Joan led the organization through a series of high-profile campaigns, most notably GLAAD’s highly successful public education initiative to combat and expose the defamatory rhetoric of “Dr. Laura” Schlessinger, a campaign that earned GLAAD a coveted PR Week Award for Best Non-Profit Team of the Year.
Garry and GLAAD also took on the New York Times and in August 2002, presented to the senior management of the Times, persuading The NY Times to change its policy to include gay and lesbian couples on its wedding pages. On the heels of this victory, Garry led a nationwide campaign resulting in an extraordinary increase – from 69 at the time to currently over 500 – in the number of newspapers across the United States that accept same-sex wedding/union announcements.
Joan lives in New Jersey with her partner of 27 years and their three children. Her landmark 1993 court challenge to New Jersey’s second-parent adoption law made Garry the first lesbian in the state to adopt her partner’s biological children.
Joan is currently a featured blogger at The Huffington Post where she writes about issues that matter to her and to her family, working to help Americans connect the front page to the world in their own back yards. Garry offers commentary on issues of relevance to the gay community as a columnist with The Washington Blade. This year, her personal essays have been published in The Newark Star Ledger and The New York Times. Garry also blogs with and about her kids at www.whosthegrownup.com and on her own here at www.joangarry.com. In the spirit of using her voice to advocate for change, Garry is the first and only female singing member of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus.
Garry was also the Co-chair of the National LGBT Finance Committee for Obama for America, leading a committee of 75 fundraisers nationwide to engage and mobilize the LGBT community to champion the candidacy of President-elect Obama.