Posted on 10/30/2008 5:23:46 PM PDT by originalbuckeye
Gay couple living American dream They fear Prop. 8 threatens their civil rights
By Brian Charles
The Galluccio family doesn’t look much different than most American families — except two dads head the household.
“We sit down for dinner. We even say grace,” said Jon Galluccio, 45.
Jon and Michael Galluccio are a gay couple and the parents of three adopted children.
A recent Yes on Prop. 8 rally left the Galluccio’s steaming.
“Why is my life, liberty and my pursuit of happiness a threat to anyone?” said Michael Galluccio, 46.
The No on 8 sign stands in their front yard as their adoptive children run through their Stevenson Ranch home.
“We had to sue the state of New Jersey to adopt Adam (the couple’s teenage son),” Jon Gallucccio said.
The successful class action lawsuit earned the couple a spot on "Larry King Live" and a book deal. “An American Family” tells the story of the couple’s struggle to adopt children.
The couple adopted three children, two who were born drug dependent and HIV-exposed. The extra challenges with adopting special-needs children is all in a day’s work, Michael Galluccio said.
“Our need to be parents was as strong as their need for parents,” he said.
Jon Galluccio gave up a career and was a stay-at-home dad. Michael worked for the Walt Disney Company in New York and in 2007 the company transferred him to Burbank. With the legal battle behind them the Gallucccios focused on homework, curfews and parenting.
“After the book we decided to focus on our children and not being activists,” Jon Galluccio said.
When Proposition 8 was put on the ballot the couple was dragged back into the fray, he said.
“I want the people in this community to see us and say here’s what you are fighting. How has us living near you hurt you?” Jon Galluccio said.
The couple married in an Episcopal Church ceremony 13 years ago. The marriage was not recognized by any state. The couple had an official state marriage at a friend’s home Aug. 12 in the Santa Clarita Valley. The couple enjoys married life and wants to preserve that right for future generations,
“Someday she’ll be grown,” he said pointing to Madison Galluccio, his 11-year-old daughter. “My job as a parent is to make a world that she fits in to.”
The Proposition 8 battle cuts deep into the Galluccio family, Michael Galluccio said.
Madison Galluccio is a sixth-grader at Pico Canyon Elementary School in Stevenson Ranch. She chose to use her parents’ book for a class report on heroes.
“My teacher saw the book and said it looked great,” Madison Galluccio said.
Then a phone call from the school district upset Jon Galluccio.
“I was told by the school that every sixth-grader will be sent home with a letter stating that Madison is giving this oral report,” Jon Galluccio said.
He talked with his daughter about changing the topic to something less controversial. “She said, ‘absolutely not. I am doing this report’,” Jon Galluccio said as tears rolled down his face.
Jon Galluccio is waiting to see the content of the letter before deciding whether Madison will give her report.
“It’s the responsibility of an 11-year-old girl to teach diversity,” Michael Galluccio said.
Madison and Adam Galluccio, a 14-year-old special-needs student, set the table as their parents cooked dinner. Jon Galluccio cut the lettuce as Michael Galluccio played with his new iPhone.
“We are as traditional as any American family,” Michael Galluccio said.
He knows all those who support Proposition 8 don’t hate gay or lesbian people. But tolerance is not what he is looking for.
“It hurts to be tolerated,” he said.
Oh dear.
OK, report to rear! We'll not tolerate the queerism!
As the ex-charger Miles McPheerson, the pastor the wonderful THE ROCK Church in San Diego said - you do something because it’s THE RIGHT thing to do, regardless of whether or not it effects you personally.
They’re afraid of any loud, obnoxious organized group that will scream “discrimination” at the drop of a hat. Yet it’s open season on people of faith knowing we don’t yell and carry on when we don’t get our way.
The Galluccio family doesn’t look much different than most American families — but the smell, oy!
The Lord sayeth that thou shall add a barf alert.
its not about hate, its not about religion - its about rights for a sexual preference impeding on the rights of others.
The prayers of Sodomites don’t even go past the ceiling, unless it is a prayer of repentance from the sin of homosexuality.
Living the American Dream? Just don’t die, and you’ll be OK.
I'm confused, did someone say he was a threat, or that they are hurt by him living "near" them?
Anyway, my answer to him is that I do not want to see the definition of marriage changed. I do not appreciate the homosexual agenda shoved in my face, nor my children's. I note his statement about not being an "activist", and trying to live quietly. That's fine, it's a free country. But if he can live unfettered in his homo lifestyle, why cannot I live my life unfettered by homosexuality, if i so choose?
These people are entirely too sensitive. I haven't read Prop 8 but does it say in there that gay fathers cannot live near not-gay fathers? Mr. (or Mz.) Galluccio got way off topic there. There's also the "gay pride" parades, like the picture someone else posted in this thread, where these people come out looking so freakish. If the Galluccio family is trying to be so "conventional" then why don't more of them work to shut down the freak show that reflects on ALL of them. Can't remember the last time I went to a homosexual-pride parade where everyone looked like freak show rejects.
“The American Dream” is so empty a concept that it is possible to attribute anything to it. It once meant liberty underpinned by civil virtue. It has come to mean rampant consumerism and now seems to include sexual license.
If I want to declare myself the Duke of New York, and my wife the Duchess, that is of course my right, but it is not my right to compel the state of New York to recognise this.
No, cupcake, you're NOT.
You are a couple of queers that are raising three children that are highly likely to turn out queer as well.
THAT is the reason I oppose "gay marriage". I really don't care what homos do or who they do it with. I DO care that they are able to indoctrinate another generation with their perversions, under the guise of "civil rights".
Makes me literally sick to my stomach!
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