Remember, I was married until I was 40 years old. I had heard an awful lot of gay jokes and stories and insults through the years when I was in the closet.” He had trouble accepting any teasing that might come from his friends because of his gay father. His son, Rosenberger said, “didn’t have trouble accepting his gay father, with the love that he had for his father. Rosenberger, a Margate native who works in real estate development and lives in Atlantic City, came out when his children - Gerard, 31, and Annie, 28 - were teenagers.

Now 65, Geoff Rosenberger can sum up a few decades of his personal life pretty succinctly: “I was single in my 20s, married in my 30s and divorced in my 40s.”

“Father’s Day means so much more as a gay father, because I think there’s something very powerful in being able to say that I am part of a same-sex couple that’s able to say I am a father,” Lyons said. “So to say that we’re living in a community that allows us to do this, that allows us to adopt a child, is really powerful.” 'Particularly subject to hostility' Pride month: How to celebrate Pride Month across New Jersey in June