The adoption “gave us the most legitimate thing available to us” at the time, said Bosee, 68.

The adoption process Bosee and Esposito went through was not uncommon. The ACLU of Pennsylvania, an organisation supporting the couple, says many couples in states across the country lawfully took advantage of adoption laws in order to protect their relationships.

In Pennsylvania, Esposito and Bosee knew other couples who successfully annulled their adoptions in order to marry.

They quickly made plans to do the same after Pennsylvania legalised marriage between same-sex couples in May 2014.

“We realised we could have a complete union, which is what we want,” Esposito said.

But Judge Lawrence J. O’Toole, of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, ruled against the couple. He claimed that the main purpose of the adoption was to reduce the inheritance tax the men would pay when one died. “

O’Toole said he was “sensitive to the situation” but noted that despite the fact Esposito and Bosee desire to marry, “they cannot do so because they are legally father and son.”

A spokesperson from ACLU said, ‘it is hopeful that the Superior Court will apply established legal principles to allow annulment of adoptions by same-sex couples who that they can finally partake of their constitutional right to marry.”