José Rolón, or @nycgaydad as he’s known to his larger than 137,000 Tik Tok followers, grew up dreaming about having children. Nonetheless Rolón, 44, on no legend notion it might perhaps well maybe perhaps presumably happen for him.
“I grew up in a machismo family with a father who yelled at me to ‘whisk love a particular person and not love a faggot,’” Rolón told TODAY Other folks. “Whenever you happen to had pulled me apart and mentioned, ‘In the future you’ll like a huge, elated family,’ I wouldn’t like believed you.”
That’s one of many reasons Rolón, a Unusual York Metropolis-marriage ceremony planner, began posting photos of existence with his 7-year-passe son, Avery, and 6-year-passe twin daughters, Lilah and London.
“I need LGBTQ formative years to know that there’s hope,” Rolón explained, his declare cracking with emotion. “I safe messages from mothers the total time which might perhaps well be love, ‘My son is 13 and he’s homosexual and if truth be told struggling. Thank you for exhibiting him what’s that it’s doubtless you’ll perhaps perhaps perhaps also imagine.”
Rolón keeps the hiss mild and most ceaselessly pokes enjoyable of homosexual stereotypes. In one clip that not too long within the past went viral, Rolón hilariously responds to a commenter who requested, “Manufacture homosexual dads need their sons to be love girls or guys?”
The video shows Rolón asking Avery a series of questions, with Avery turning in “homosexual” solutions.
Rolón: “Who’s your queen?
Avery: “That’s easy, Beyoncé.”
Rolón: “Hmmm. I mediate it’s Janet, nevertheless finest. Authorized milk?”
Avery: “(Baby-kisser and homosexual rights activist) Harvey Milk.”
Rolón: “True! Batman or Robin?”
Avery: “Thor.”
Rolón: “You fell for the trick put a question to! How attain you articulate ‘yes?’”
Avery: “Yaaaas, queen!”
Rolón: “True. You’re pushed apart.”
“You might perhaps well perhaps perhaps perhaps presumably on no legend ask a straight father or mother if they’re raising their baby to be homosexual or straight,” Rolón noted. “I hardly ever acknowledge to trolls nevertheless I couldn’t let this one trudge.”
The motorway to fatherhood
Even supposing Rolón has made a reputation for himself on social media by making folks snicker, his existence has been marked by private tragedy.
In 2013, Rolón’s husband, Tim Merrell, died in his sleep. On the time, Avery became once an toddler and the couple’s surrogate became once 11 weeks pregnant with their daughters Lilah and London.
Rolón became once troubled he wouldn’t be in a local to elevate three children without the love of his existence.
“My husband and I were a huge crew. I might perhaps well perhaps perhaps not imagine doing it without him,” Rolón published. “Nonetheless on the morning of Tim’s funeral service, I wakened and I believed, ‘Avery upright misplaced his father. What if something were to happen to me?’ I didn’t deserve to leave him by myself in this world. I knew what I became once supposed to realize.”
Rolón announced the toddler records while giving Merrell’s eulogy in a church filled with 400 folks.
“That became once form of my demand love and prayers,” Rolón mentioned. “And I have been supported ever since. It if truth be told does select a village.”
Right this moment, that village entails Avery, Lilah and London.
“They’ve every different and we all like every different,” he mentioned. “I went from being this loner on the planet to having a plump, abundant family.”
