Gun Control & LGBT Rights Advocate Mark Glaze Is Dead at 51
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Mark Charles Glaze, the prominent and influential LGBT and Gun Control advocate and attorney died October 31 in Scranton, PA where he was in jail for a hit and run accident.
Glaze committed suicide.
The New York Times: Mr. Glaze was already a veteran political organizer in January 2011 when he joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an organization that was founded by Michael R. Bloomberg and more than a dozen other mayors. He worked for the organization part time, as a consultant on loan from the Raben Group, a public affairs firm.
Gun violence was at the time one of those issues that Washington insiders compared to the weather: something everyone talked about but no one did anything to change. The National Rifle Association controlled the topic, cajoling even moderate Democrats to oppose any effort to regulate firearms.
A decade later, gun violence is a winning issue for many state and local governments, the N.R.A. is in tatters and Congress is increasingly willing to stand up for gun safety — a drastic shift that many attribute to Mr. Glaze’s tireless organizing and brilliant strategizing.
“Mark unquestionably was one of the architects of the gun safety movement,” John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a phone interview.
Then, on Dec. 14, 2012, a gunman killed 26 people, mostly children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Newtown was a tragedy, but as Mr. Glaze immediately recognized, it was also an opportunity for action. So did the White House: President Barack Obama promised to put “everything I’ve got” into passing substantial gun-control legislation.
Prior to that, Mr. Glaze was influential in repealing Don’t ask, Don’t tell. The Washington Blade: Blade editor Kevin Naff was a longtime friend of Glaze’s. “Mark’s work as an LGBTQ rights and gun reform advocate undoubtedly saved lives and he will be missed by many,” Naff said. “I commend his family for being so transparent about his cause of death; that candor will surely help even more people. I hope Mark has found the peace that eluded him for so long and I will miss his friendship, sense of humor, and his brilliant skill at debating and skewering Fox News hosts.”
Glaze was born on October 21, 1970, in Pueblo, Colorado, to parents Charles Glaze and Nancy Green. He attended South High School in Pueblo.
Glaze was a Truman Foundation Scholar at The Colorado College and an honors graduate of the George Washington University Law School.
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Highlighting a long career of public service, he served as an advisor to the Commission on Federal Election Reform led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker.
A seasoned strategist in public affairs, advocacy and politics. Glaze managed complex national and state issue campaigns, using all the tools of modern persuasion, to improve public policy on some of the toughest issues we face, against some of the most powerful special interests. Glaze’s clients included some of America’s best-known nonprofits, foundations and corporations.
The New York Times: Mr. Glaze, who was gay, took particular inspiration from the movement for same-sex marriage, which had for decades pushed for changes at the state and local level before taking on Congress and the Supreme Court. “We felt keenly that there are some issues where Congress was the curtain-raiser, and some where it’s a finale,” Mr. Feinblatt said.
“If you had told me when I was growing up in the mountains of Colorado, shooting guns on the weekend with a dad who is an N.R.A. member and a gun dealer, that The Wall Street Journal would call me the face of the gun control movement, I’m not sure I would have believed you,” Mr. Glaze said in a video he made for his alma mater.
He is survived by his son, Archer.
Mr. Glaze had long struggled with addiction and depression. His arrest came after he fled the scene of a car accident.
Gun control might have been his legacy and his passion, but Mr. Glaze said it was something he had just “stumbled into” amid his work on issues like teacher unions, gay rights and international human rights.
“The work I like to do,” he said in the Colorado College video, “involves big-issue campaigns where you’re trying to change public policy for the better, and those campaigns involve lots of moving parts.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). You can find a list of additional resources at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
