Today, I am seeing my parents for the first time since the beginning of the trial, and Andrew’s death. My mother has been calling me pretty frequently about the proceedings of the trial, so I know she’s been keeping up on the paper. My father, on the other hand, has definitely shut it out. I can tell this, because whenever he answers the phone he tries to steer the conversation away to anything else. I can tell it made him uncomfortable. If you were wondering where I gained all of my previous conservative beliefs on sexuality from, It was my father. Believe me, I can understand that he comes from a different time, and I was right where he was sitting a year ago. Hopefully, when the trial inevitably comes up over dinner, I can share with him a few things that I learned, and what my relationship with Andrew has taught me.
My father is an honest, and hardworking man and has always been fair to me and my siblings. He made all my baseball games growing up, even the ones that were two towns over. Never missed a family meal, and always made sure to get a full report of our days. These are some of the qualities that make it so hard to believe that my father was disappointed that I took this case. I know my difficulty with taking the case stemmed from my fathers ignorance, and the ignorance that was passed onto my father from his father. When I think about that chain, and how I was able to break it, it gives me hope. I know that if my father met Andrew, and saw the love he shared and the impact he made on the individuals around him, he would understand that they have a lot more in common than he would have thought.
I am attaching below a song that was constantly playing throughout my house when I was a young boy. Every time I talk about my father, this song instantly fills my head.
