Nerds are cool. But even more than nerds, I respect people who stand up for and defend their convictions of heart and those who fight for justice. I was deeply disturbed and saddened today to discover that my own father would, if he could, prevent two men (or women) from marrying. I suspected that he felt this way, of course. What I didn't know is that he supports an organization that works to prevent marriage equality. What I know - and what I feel - is deep, deep sadness. My sadness is sadness for him that he can't seem to recognize that the same old hate that courses through the veins of history is rising again in his rhetoric. Even if he thinks his reasoning is sound in love and safe in "god," he must recognize that his failure to love his own child, to take the opportunity that I am gay to fine-tooth comb and reevaluate his beliefs and affiliations, is paramount to neglect. Most parents want the best for their kids. My father, though, seeks to strip his only son of his humanity and equality. He fuels the hateful pyre that evangelists first started and that copycats have fanned. Once and for all, I want to bare my heart in hopes that justice will prevail, that heavy rains will come to stifle and starve of oxygen this raging fire.