Standing at the back of the Episcopal Church of Atonement in the New Jersey town of Fairlawn, Michael Galluccio rubbed his thumb across Jon Holden-Galluccio’s neck. When a trumpet blared, the couple took a deep breath and proceeded up the aisle.

Welcoming the couple into a bond that "cannot be broken," the Rev. Kevin Coffey asked the men to exchange their holy union vows. In the second row, the couple’s two-year-old son Adam hung his chin over the pew in front of him and dangled his feet.

It was not the first union ceremony to be performed for a gay couple, but it was one of the most historic. Last October, the Galluccios became the country’s first gay couple to win the legal right to jointly adopt their child. Soon after, the state of New Jersey agreed to allow gay couples to jointly adopt children under the same criteria as married heterosexual couples. Although second-parent adoptions involving gay couples have not been unusual in the U.S., New Jersey is the first state to treat married couples and unmarried couples equally in adoption procedures.

In April, Jon Holden legally changed his last name to Galluccio and proposed to his partner on the steps of the Bergen County Courthouse. For symbolic reasons, the couple chose Father’s Day as the day of their "holy union."

The service opened with a solo by Juli Savettiere, who sang her original song, "Between You and Me." The Galluccios were so moved by her performance at a New Jersey Pride festival that they recruited her to sing at their wedding.

"When she started singing, I lost it," said Jon. "I had to run down to the bathroom before I could walk down the aisle."

But while the mood inside the church was festive, protestors outside reminded parishioners that not everyone supported the event.

"If you think it’s hot out here, wait till you get to hell," shouted Gina Rowgalski as members of the church poured out into the street.

"Yeah," added her husband, Chester Rowgalski, "This is air conditioning."

Although The New York Times and other newspapers reported that only one protestor was present, a crowd began to gather toward the end of the service. The Rowgalskis said they joined the protest when they saw Stephen Bauer standing alone on a corner holding signs that read, "There are no gays in Heaven" and "This is not a Church of God - Repent."

"We were driving along Broadway, and saw this man," explained Gina Rowgalski. "We decided to pull over. We knew we had to support him."

Bauer, who lives in Essex County but read about the couple and decided to drive 30 minutes to protest the service, eventually drew interest from neighbors and passing cars.

One neighbor, who refused to give her name, said she objected to the ceremony as well as the adoption.

"There should be a mom and a dad," she said, even though adoption officials found Adam difficult to place with a family because he tested positive for antibodies for the HIV virus.

"I would have taken him. HIV babies can’t hurt you," the neighbor asserted. "Except when they spit in your face."

Gina Rowgalski said her concerns were biblically based.

"It’s an abomination of God to have gays in the Church," she said. "Read the Bible."

As she said this, a man inside the church read from the Letter to the Galatians: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female," the passage said, "for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."

The Galluccios said that the protestors did not faze them at all.

"They were so insignificant," said Jon. "They made absolutely no difference to me."

From the church, the couple went to a Father’s Day barbecue given by Michael ’s parents and then left for a two-day honeymoon in Manhattan.

"People wondered why we would choose to spend our honeymoon in New York City," said Jon, who pointed out that they lived in Manhattan from 1986 to 1994. "Well, we miss it."