Katz, who teaches physics at Washington University removed the essay after his son, Isaac Katz, came out as gay on Sunday.

Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an essay sent in by Isaac Katz’s assuring gay teens: that “[i]t does get better.” On Monday, the younger Katz added that this renewal does take some time.

“I feel like it’ll be different for every person, [but] accepting who you are is the most important step,” Katz said.

National Coming Out Day also aimed to help students come to accept their sexualities.

Pride Alliance co-president Adrienne Sands was thrilled with the student involvement in Monday’s celebrations. Almost 150 students came and made buttons to show their support.

“It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” Sands said. “We had a booth set up for almost five hours, and we had people who identified as gay, straight and transgendered. We actually had two students who came out today for the first time, and that was just really amazing.”

Finding support for struggling LGBT teens is the center of a nationwide movement led by organizations such as Pride Alliance and also by gay celebrities.

“Dan Savage’s movement is to show that people have role models, not just famous people, [but] people they know,” Isaac Katz said. “There are people they can talk to, whether it’s a peer or a residential advisor.”

The younger Katz, despite struggling to recognize his own homosexuality, noted that others were much quicker to accept his being gay.

“I’ve never had problems with peers accepting me, in terms of sexuality,” Katz said.

Professor Katz’s reposting of his inflammatory essay, however, proves that there are still significant hurdles to be overcome for the LGBT community.

“Moral condemnation will not extirpate [gays], but neither can the law; a climate of disapproval may reduce their frequency and their harm,” Jonathan Katz wrote.

His son considers this distancing the major factor that must be overcome to effectively bring an end to homophobia.

According to Isaac Katz, if homophobes realize that people they know are gay, they will then realize that anti-gay discrimination is nonsensical.

“It’s important [that] more people are open about their sexuality,” Katz said.

Katz’s final comment asked that students do not conflate the controversy with his father’s teaching, and he again expressed that his message should be about more than his personal circumstances.

“My dad has always kept politics out of the classroom; I hope that students who take his class will do the same,” the younger Katz said. “This isn’t just about myself or my own family. I hope that this will become part of a larger story.”

Wash. U. Pride Alliance will hold a vigil for the recent gay teen suicide victims on Oct. 21.

People often ask me questions like, “When did you come out?” or “What made you choose to come out?” leading me to believe that many people chalk coming out to be as clean and straightforward as changing one’s Facebook information to read “Male, interested in men.” It’s not that simple; that’s barely scratching the surface. Coming out is twisted, messy and certainly does not happen in the click of a mouse. On the contrary, its a journey that lasts a lifetime, and it is not always a smooth one.

Many people act very surprised when I explain that although I was out of the closet in high school, and certainly am even more so in college, I have never discussed my sexuality with any family members. In fact, when I recently told a friend that I was starting OPEN, a coming-out group on campus, her first reaction was to snort and say, “You? How could you start a coming-out group if you’re not even out to your parents?” I tried not to take her rash criticism as an insult, and my answer was that it’s complicated.

It is complicated. In high school I was lucky enough to make a fresh start at a school where everyone was new, and no one knew each other. The problem is that our lives don’t always have room for fresh starts when we need them, and some people who have known us our whole lives are unwilling to accept change.

Some college students like to make the claim that they are adults, and in some ways they are. However, when a college student is at the mercy of his parents’ purse strings, the parents retain a large degree of control, especially when the cost of college tuition is $50,000 a year. You may scoff at me, but I have friends who have been denied college tuition from their parents after coming out; worse yet, some have been denounced, beaten and all but excommunicated from the family. I want to say this again: I know different people from different backgrounds and different parts of the country whose parents wouldn’t pay for college because their child was gay, and these people do not all come from rural villages or backwoods cabins like some of you might imagine. The year is 2009, and this is real.

Some people say that they understand my hesitance to come out to my family; some say that my parents must have figured it out already, and some say I am ridiculous, selfish or both for not telling. I guess I am selfish. I’m selfish about getting a college education and moving forward with my life. I’m selfish about feeling safe and comfortable, even at the expense of being open. Of course, this is not without its consequences. I know that I can never feel like I am being honest with my parents without being open about sexuality, because sexuality is such a big part of my life. I’m not ashamed of who I am, but with family, I have to put my sexuality away and pretend it isn’t there. No, I don’t have to, but I choose to.

Every time I come home to visit, my grandmother asks me if I have a girlfriend. I say no, and I try to imply that I’m just not interested in dating. The full truth is that I will never have a girlfriend and I’m not interested in dating girls. My older cousins will ask me more neutral questions like “Are you seeing someone special?” and I just say that I am having fun but not being serious. I feel like they understand what I’m going through, somehow, but they are just waiting for me to say it. Whatever the case, I know that I am hiding from my family, and it is hurting me, as it may be hurting them as well.

My friend later apologized and told me that I would be good to head a coming-out group on campus because I am comfortable with myself and I weigh my decisions carefully. I want to agree with her, and I hope I can help others feel comfortable with themselves and make good choices. With that said, I would never tell someone to come out if the timing or the situation is not right; the effects it can have on one’s life can and should be freeing and life-affirming, but if done wrong, they can be horrifying and life-shattering instead. That’s why I say to be careful with your life and be selfish too; you don’t always have control over what other people know, but it’s important to take care of yourself first. In the meantime, take control of yourself and enjoy being who you are; if you don’t do that, then you will never be happy.

Brian is the founder of OPEN, Wash. U.’s student-run coming-out group, and is a sophomore in Arts & Sciences. He can be reached via e-mail at bnkline@wustl.edu.

This marks the first event Pride Alliance and the Right Side of History have jointly organized, and hopefully it is the beginning of an ongoing partnership. At first, interactions between the two groups were tense, with the Right Side of History fearing that Pride Alliance was opposed to its initiatives, and Pride Alliance markedly concerned that the Right Side of History would promote LGBT rights while denying a voice to LGBT people themselves. Discussions between Pride and the Right Side of History are ongoing as we try to work together to reach shared goals.

One goal, of course, is creating a safe, supportive community for LGBT students on campus. Come and show that you support an LGBT-friendly Wash. U. by participating in National Coming Out Day. Look for tables at the northeast corner of the DUC on Monday (and expect a healthy dose of Mariah Carey when we are allowed to play music from noon to 1 p.m.).

While National Coming Out Day calls attention to how far we have to go before reaching LGBT equality in the United States, most importantly, it is a celebration. It is a celebration of those who identify as LGBT and those straight-identifying folks who act as allies in the movement. We hope that you will join us. After all, closets are for clothes.

Shelby is a senior in Arts & Sciences. She can be reached via e-mail at slcarpen@wustl.edu.

“There is a role for everyone within Pride Alliance,” junior Audrey King, co-president of Pride Alliance, a multi-focus LGBTQIA group, said.

Pride Alliance initiated the week with a coming out workshop hosted by Safe Zones. The workshop was held in the Pride room in the Women’s Building.

At the event, a representative of Student Health Services spoke with students about constructing a plan for announcing one’s sexual and gender identity to peers and parents.

Students at the workshop discussed strategies for coming out, including ways to support someone planning to come out.

“I think it is really nice to have that safe place where people understand,” King said.

Throughout the week, Pride Alliance held a series of discussions on sexual identity and the LGBTQIA community.

This past Wednesday in Ursa’s Café, the group also commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Matthew Shepard hate crime in Laramie, Wyo. Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was murdered in Oct. 1998 by two men on their way home from a bar.

Awareness Week ended this past Friday, the eve of National Coming Out Day.

“I think it helps people in a different way, maybe less directly than the workshop,” King said.

The last event of the week was a masquerade-themed semiformal dance, titled Midnight MasQueerade and held in McMillan Café. The 125 students who attended were offered free masks for the semiformal.

At midnight, Pride Alliance played Diana Ross’s hit song “I’m Coming Out”—a song adopted by the gay community for coming out.

Midnight MasQueerade also commemorated Connecticut’s legalization of gay marriage, which the Conn. Supreme Court ruled in favor of on Monday.

Pride Alliance has previously held its annual semiformal GAYLA in spring, but the MasQueerade marks the first semiformal event Pride Alliance has held in the fall.

Students reactions were largely positive.

“It’s awesome,” freshman David Levine said of the activities. “A lot of education still needs to be done. There should be education on how intolerant people really are. This is not going to go away by itself.”

“I think there are always going to be people who are judgmental. Hopefully stuff like Safe Zones and programs like that can help,” senior Archana Varma said.

Varma questioned, however, how effectively Pride Alliance would be able to inform and target the University’s student body, “Sometimes those programs target people who are already informed and don’t really need them,” Varma said.

However, freshman Michael Laks observed the week was not well publicized.

“I think they should have said more about it. I didn’t even know about it,” Laks said.

Residential advisers were, however, notified about Pride Alliance week via e-mail, and many passed the message on to their floors.

Pride Alliance has more activities planned for the near future, including a discussion on sexual health.