Monday, as Pride Alliance celebrated National Coming Out Day and Isaac Katz imparted his advice for struggling gay teens, Professor Jonathan Katz restored the link to his “In Defense of Homophobia” essay on his professional website.

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.