Three sgle, gay dads talk about their journeys. : NPR

Contents:

• FATHER AND SON MARRY: A GAY MAN HAS MARRIED HIS ADOPTED SON IN PENNSYLVANIA
• A GAY DAD AND HIS SON
• SHOCK AS GAY ‘FATHER’ LEGALLY MARRI HIS ‘SON’
• SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: HOW A FATHER AND GAY SON PED WH TENSE SSM BATE
• GOP LAWMAKER ATTEND GAY SON'S WEDDG 3 DAYS AFTER VOTG AGAST SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
• PASTOR FRANK SCHAEFER NEVER EXPECTED TO SPEAK FOR GAY RIGHTS. HIS SON’S GAY WEDDG CHANGED EVERYTHG.
• DIVORCED UPLE SHAR SPIRG JOURNEY AFTER HBAND OUT AS GAY
• THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS
• ‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
• PA. PASTOR FAC CHURCH TRIAL OVER SON'S GAY MARRIAGE
• FATHER'S LETTER DISOWNG GAY SON JAM AFTER COMG OUT GO VIRAL

FATHER AND SON MARRY: A GAY MAN HAS MARRIED HIS ADOPTED SON IN PENNSYLVANIA

The gay uple, who have lived as father and son for the past four years, tied the knot last week after a Pennsylvania urt allowed the men to dissolve their father-son relatnship so they uld live as married partners stead, The Inpennt is Bosee Jr, 79, legally adopted No Esposom 69, 2012. At the time, gay marriage was not legal Pennsylvania, so the two men did somethg that was not unual before gay marriage beme legal: the olr man adopted the younger man as a procral move to protect themselv gay marriage beme legal, some gay partnerships one partner would adopt the other.

A GAY DAD AND HIS SON

This would offer some legal protectns for the uple, such as protectg herance or makg end-of-life Ronald and No, who have been a uple sce the 1970’s acrdg to Pk News, their stat as father and son ed them some trouble once gay marriage beme legal Pennsylvania. The two men would have to ntue livg as father and son, at least here to ntue and read And Son Marry: A Gay Man Has Married His Adopted Son In Pennsylvania is an article om: The Inquisr News.

”It beme a much more tertg and real relatnship between me — his straight son — and my new gay dad.

Mills, 45, a graphic artist-turned-filmmaker — he directed the 2005 oddball die Thumbsucker — sensed there might be a film to be ma of his father’s g-out story after he asked his dad how he end up wh a woman the first place, pecially sce she’d been aware all along that he was gay. ) ”What he said to me exactly was ‘She took off her Jewish badge, and I took off my gay badge, and we got married, ”’ Mills rells. Bill Novak, 76, and Norman McArthur, 74, who met 52 years ago, were sperate to be legally together as a gay uple.

SHOCK AS GAY ‘FATHER’ LEGALLY MARRI HIS ‘SON’

Glenn Thompson on Tuday joed 156 of his GOP lleagu votg agast the Rpect for Marriage Act, which if passed the Senate and signed by Print Joe Bin would dify same-sex marriage to, three days later, the Pennsylvania lawmaker attend his gay son's same-sex marriage. Rsell is proudly gay and his dad don't believe same-sex 24-year-old n't que unrstand why his father isn't champng for his equal says he should have equal legal rights the form of a civil unn, but put simply, that marriage is for a man and a woman.

"Everyone jt his everythg unr the hatchet and plays happy fai, " Rsell media puts further stra on relatnshipGay rights activists have been tryg to get same-sex marriage on the agenda for more recently as Atralians were given the optn to vote on whether they thk gay people should be able to get married, opened the doors for people to speak openly about their 's also phed fai to say what's long been left unspoken. "Dad's gay marriage turnaroundSome of the ments om Y voters got nasty and personal.

A Republin lawmaker attend his gay son’s weddg jt three days after jog the majory of his GOP lleagu votg agast a Hoe bill that would dify feral protectns for same-sex gay son of Rep. Frank Schaefer: Methodist pastor and gay rights advoteRev. Frank Schaefer, send om left, gathers wh supporters om the Methodist church and the gay, lbian and transgenr muny for a prayer service before a hearg by the Uned Methodist Judicial Council Wednday, Oct.

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: HOW A FATHER AND GAY SON PED WH TENSE SSM BATE

(AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Jim Weber)To Frank Schaefer, wasn't three of his four children beg gay that bothered him so much, was that they looked gay.

GOP LAWMAKER ATTEND GAY SON'S WEDDG 3 DAYS AFTER VOTG AGAST SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

He wasn’t really cricizg, she told herself — he was jt makg an paful scene between a parent and a gay child is perhaps not so unual — until you win the next year, Frank Schaefer, a Uned Methodist pastor ral Pennsylvania, was Boston aga on a fay trip.

This time, he was there to officiate at the weddg of his gay son Tim — vlatn of his nomatn’s doctre, which prohibs same-sex love of Tim and his soon-to-be-hband “is om no other source than om God, ” Schaefer told some 120 people gathered that April day 2007 at a rtrant overlookg Massachetts Bay. ”Meanwhile, Schaefer has bee a natnal star the gay equaly movement — a sought-after speaker and the foc of a documentary, a play and untls stori the news media. Yet even as he passnately advot for gay rights, the 52-year-old Schaefer is an unlikely activist.

Even now, years after the first of his three gay children me out, he talks about a ntug “evolutn” his this mak the ocked pastor an apt in for Ameri 2014, when polls show a large swath of adults still have doubts about gay equaly spe the whirlwd embrace of the movement by urts, ernments and much of society. ”‘A whole other way of seeg this’Growg up northwt Germany, Schaefer got his first glimpse of homosexualy on televisn, when gay paras om the bigger ci were broadst to his home town of Wuppertal. Some of the gay men appeared nearly naked as they marched, he parents were appalled.

PASTOR FRANK SCHAEFER NEVER EXPECTED TO SPEAK FOR GAY RIGHTS. HIS SON’S GAY WEDDG CHANGED EVERYTHG.

“The kd of sex homosexual people have is perverted, ” Schaefer remembers his parents sayg, echog the views of the fundamentalist Baptist church the fay then, Schaefer didn’t qutn he was a teenager, his perspective broaned a b when he met his future wife, Brigte. “I held on to the beliefs I was brought up wh, but I spend my judgment on actual homosexuals, ” he married, he and Brigte moved 1989 to Norfolk so he uld work as a translator. Soon he felt a ll to eventually ma his way the mid-1990s to Prceton Universy’s semary, where for the first time he met several gay theology stunts and enuntered a variety of views on how to read Scripture — cludg on the topic of sexualy.

”The Methodist Church assigned Frank Schaefer after his 1996 ordatn to church Lebanon County, a nservative, ral part of eastern Pennsylvania known for s tradnal Pennsylvania Dutch subject of homosexualy me up jt a uple of tim at work, when young people rejected by their parents me to him privately. He would never have marched a gay pri event. He certaly would not have officiated at a gay weddg.

DIVORCED UPLE SHAR SPIRG JOURNEY AFTER HBAND OUT AS GAY

The group was batg Methodist language around homosexualy, and the nversatn was often ntent.

Tim was stck by how few people supported gay never occurred to Schaefer to brg the topic up wh Tim on the way home. Your 17-year-old son, the woman said, is gay. Gay equaly had been an abstract ia to him until then.

“Now that my own son turned out to be gay, I was really stgglg, and that me totally out of the blue for me, ” he says. There was already unrt about Schaefer’s cisn to have two servic, one wh tradnal mic and the other wh ntemporary mic, and the olr group felt was beg this time, the early 2000s, gay equaly had bee a ont-burner issue U.

THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS

The Epispal Church had elected Gene Robson as s first openly gay bishop, triggerg ath threats agast him and the exod of dozens of nservative ngregatns.

”He feared Schaefer, now 23 and a lguistics graduate stunt at the Universy of California at Santa Barbara, remembers his father tellg him that Tim was gay.

In 2004, both he and Debbie would e out as gay, creasg Schaefer’s sire to both support his children and rema discreet, for fear of dividg his church. In our area, was a whe nservative church, and I felt we need to speak out on a lot of thgs, ” says put a bumper sticker on her r wh a blue and yellow equal sign, the logo for the Human Rights Campaign, a group that supports the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people.

‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD

He had affirmed his three gay children, but marryg his son would directly vlate Methodist l.

Soundg hurt, he shared some of his wrgs on the topic, which he posts on, tled “I Love Pastor Frank enough as a iend to tell him the Tth of Scripture, ” says:"Homosexualy is NOT the issue here; n be any s as revealed the Bible. "Schaefer and his attorneys termed that their bt strategy was to stay away om his personal beliefs about homosexualy. When she walked up to the altar for Communn, the sanctuary filled wh the sound of sobbg, even om opponents of gay equaly, he said.

PA. PASTOR FAC CHURCH TRIAL OVER SON'S GAY MARRIAGE

”Earlier the year, Schaefer was givg a talk at Foundry Uned Methodist Church, Dupont Circle, wh several other Uned Methodist clergy members who had lost their jobs over the issue of gay equaly, when someone stood the back of the sanctuary. And tth, he’s a b ambivalent — not about gay equaly, but about takg sis. Last summer, Matthew Pl Turner, a New York Tim bt-sellg Christian children’s book thor, announced he was gay and endg his 15-year marriage..

FATHER'S LETTER DISOWNG GAY SON JAM AFTER COMG OUT GO VIRAL

"Beg gay isn’t a new disvery for me.