Pride Guide 2000
Life for all the world to see, in front of a web cam's eye
by Jeff Townsend
When Christian Grantham was growing up in rural Tennessee, the Internet was the sole propriety of government officials, academia and geeks. It wasn't until he came out in college in the early 1990s that the net exploded into what it is today.
Nowadays, Grantham, 28, spends his time in Washington, D.C. working with national civil rights groups and living his life live on the Internet, at www.christiangrantham.com.
"The web cam has really become like a piece of furniture," Grantham says about the slender hardware that feeds his life to a global online audience. "There are always times I have to remind myself that the world is sitting in the corner of my livingroom."
Grantham was introduced to the Internet at 18 as a freshmen in college in 1990. He remembers sharing the excitement of what he saw coming in the next decade with his parents, who then bought him his first computer. He recalls being able to explore his sexuality from a safe distance in chat rooms, which at the time had no graphical interfaces.
"If I were able in high school to log on and see just how normal being gay is like we can today," Grantham says, "I would have come out much earlier. This medium has saved so many kids' lives and has literally transformed our movement in the past tenyears."
Grantham lives his life online with roommates Josh and Chris, and says the most moving e-mail comes from older gays logging on and coming.out.
"These guys are just getting into computers and are looking for something other than porn that reflects their ideal life," Grantham
says.
Since starting his web site in December 1999 a few days before his 28th birthday, Grantham has logged over 3 million hits and received e-mail and postal mail from all over the country and world.
"I've gotten snail mail with personal notes and gifts from as far away as the back woods of Australia and inner city London, England. It's been very positive and I enjoy providing the space for people to chat and be entertained by the mundane details of me and my roommate's lives."
Being entertained, Grantham admits, is only the half of it. The entertainment value has provided a brilliant mechanism for him to share his flair for activism.
"Right now I'm helping GLAAD auction their celebrity memorabilia through eBay," Grantham says, demonstrating the link. “Besides turning people on to peanut butter and
honey-covered bagels for breakfast, the other content serves to turn people on to political activism."
Grantham moved to Washington to intern at the White House where, as a November 1997 Washington Times article describes, he used his position on an intern program development committee to jump-start gay and lesbian student applications to the program. His national involvement with gay civil rights groups came after receiving death threats and protests for campus activism in Tennes-
see.
"I was ready for Washington," Grantham says, "but people with my experience seemed a dime-a-dozen in Washington, and I needed to express myself along with the work I continued doing."
Grantham started his site as a scaleddown version of a failed online media project
Maria L. Shinn
Wills and Trusts Powers of Attorney Wrongful Death
Attorney At Law
Probate Administration Personal Injury
Workers' Compensation
Domestic Partnership Agreements
with former roommate Sean Patrick, who pioneered online web cams a few years prior, at www.seanpatricklive.com.
"Sean was very supportive and came at a time when several things had him considering ending his site,” Grantham says. “I think my enthusiasm had inspired him to continue and evolve his site as much as his know how opened me to the medium I needed for my own creativity and commentary."
When asked what his friends and family think of him inviting the world into his home he laughs. "I don't know what they think, but I know they watch. I can tell by the voice mail messages they leave, 'I know you're there, I can see you!'
""
Grantham attributes his site's wide appeal to being selective and careful with the content.
"I don't share anything on the net I
Christian Grantham
wouldn't share or do in any public place," he says. "I'm not knocking porn sites, but there's a time and place for that, and it's simply not the main focus in my public life. But accidents happen, and I've had my share of embarrassing moments on the cam."
Expressing excitement with the PlanetOut and Advocate merger, Grantham foresees the Internet balancing the movement's focus from politics to culture.
"When you win the hearts of the people, most anything you want with their consent follows. It's a matter of time before our media is their media, and I want to be right there as it happens."
♡
Jeff Townsend is a freelance writer living in Washougal, Washington.
CHIROPRACTIC HEALTH SERVICES
DAVID A. BUDNY, D.C.
16900 DETROIT AVE LAKEWOOD, OHIO 44107 (216) 228-6622
Free Initial Consultation
216-228-4791
O
2164 Glenbury Avenue Lakewood, Ohio 44107-5414
Dedicated to your wellness
or you?
d for
www.graphikfactory.com
the graphik factory
designs@graphikfactory.com< p.o. box 771475 cleveland, oh 44107 216-226-5467