christian grantham
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
	latest posts   U.K. Free Speech in Peril   Communism Is So Gay   Sunday Read   Virginia Republicans Priority 1: Discrimination   I Love New York

December 08, 2004

The New York Times has a report on the Point Foundation, which offers scholarships and other support to young people punished by their parents for coming out. The story focuses on Ryan Kim, who, after his parents refused to pay his tuition at New York University, found himself living a marginal existence in Los Angeles -- and is now finishing his first semester at Princeton. His resourcefulness and resilience are truly impressive.

Ryan Kim embodies the variety of factors the foundation seeks in recipients - need, merit, leadership potential. From the time he first moved to Los Angeles, with $2,000 saved from an after-school job and his high school graduation tassel dangling from his car's rear-view mirror, he had entirely supported himself. He won designation as a "national scholar" from the College Board because of his scores on 10 Advanced Placement tests. He put together a Day of Silence commemoration at his high school in memory of Matthew Shepard, the gay man who had been beaten and left to die in Wyoming in 1998.

Beyond those accomplishments, Ryan bristled with the insistence that nobody should feel sorry for him. In his application to the Point Foundation, he recounted the high school graduation ceremony his parents skipped, and his decision to leave for Los Angeles a few days later. "In a way, I felt free," he wrote, "and as gruesome as the analogy, it was like being one of those animals that gets caught in a bear trap and has to gnaw off their paw to get away. I was hurt, but I was alive, and it was magnificent."
[A Refuge for Gay Students When Families Turn Away - New York Times - 12-08-04]