My gay dad asked for one Father's Day gift and at age 22 I refed him

Contents:

• THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS
• ‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD
• FATHER’S DAY FOR GAY BOYS
• THE GAY FATHERS PROJECT
• HALLMARK RELEAS FIRST-EVER GAY FATHER’S DAY CARD
• GAY FATHERS DAY GIFTS

THREE SGLE, GAY DADS REFLECT ON FATHERHOOD, SURROGACY JOURNEYS

Happy Father's Day to the famo gay dads! Celebry gay fathers, whether they're actors, activists, micians, or policians, are showg the world that love is what mak a fay.

Below, learn about high-profile gay dads such as Anrson Cooper, Denis O'Hare, Matt Bomer, Karamo Brown, Ricky Mart, and many more. "I me out at 16 years old as a proud gay man. Wong -parents Jackson, who me out as gay as a teen, wh his ex-partner Richie Jackson, and Jackson's hband Jordan Roth.

In late 1980, at a support group for gay fathers, my dad met Lnel –– the man wh whom he would spend the next 23 years.

‘A FAY LIKE OURS’: PORTRAS OF GAY FATHERHOOD

He had seemed kd of lost his new life – phg 60, recently divorced om my mother, recently out of the closet as gay man. He asked that I march wh him, alongsi the other gay fathers and their kids, the Los Angel Pri Para. What I do remember was that someone had ma T-shirts that said "I LOVE MY GAY DAD" and I refed to wear one.

I told my dad, “I love you, but not bee you’re gay.

FATHER’S DAY FOR GAY BOYS

” The tth, though, is that I lacked the urage to stand all the way up for my father and his ras agast a homophobic and different world.

THE GAY FATHERS PROJECT

I probably left my "I LOVE MY GAY DAD" T-shirt next to the box had e out of, though I might have taken home wh me and buried a drawer. Pete Wilson’s office, or at the Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian and Gay dad and his hband lost a lot of iends to AIDS. Even when I was an obnox 22-year-old and wouldn’t put on a T-shirt to clare, unashamed, unembarrassed and unapologetic, that I love my gay dad.

To much of the natn, the flags reprent gay pri — a month voted to the celebratn and support of gay rights. For me, those brightly lored flags reprent my father me out as gay when I was 5 years old.

My father would later tell me he knew he was gay for as long as he uld remember. And workg to keep one foot his “old” world — rated salman, volved father — and one foot his new gay liftyle, he was somethg of a pneer. Makg matters more difficult, my father was fg that new path the 1980s durg the natn’s AIDS crisis, when homophobia and the celty and ignorance of large swaths of Amerins were at heightened levels.

HALLMARK RELEAS FIRST-EVER GAY FATHER’S DAY CARD

There were members of our muny who lerally thought that sharg a meal wh a gay person or swimmg the same pool uld prove adly.

GAY FATHERS DAY GIFTS

But step by step, my father ched forward, blendg his worlds, slowly but surely helpg those around him to unrstand that beg gay wasn’t somethg to be feared, that beg a dad and beg gay weren’t mutually exclive. Through his actns, my father shattered one stereotype after another, showg those around him that he uld be gay and love the Green Bay Packers, that he uld be gay and be a proud ary veteran, that he uld be gay and be an expert wh tools and lawnmowers and Weber grills. For much of his life, he even showed that he uld be gay and be a rd-rryg my father found his footg, he troduced me to parts of his new world.

After my long days at the library, he’d take me out to some of his favore gay bars, notably a pair of piano bars Greenwich Village. After the ceremony at New York’s Cy Hall, our four children joed a celebratory meal for children have always been very acceptg of my dad beg gay and never saw as particularly noteworthy — was simply a fact of summer morng, my 9-year-old son announced he wanted to make a rabow flag for Opa. When I was growg up, nobody was supposed to be gay.

And grandpas who were gay had to live their whole liv pretendg they were someone they weren’t.