Fatherhood has been exhilarating for Weston Clark, who put aside a teaching career to be a stay-at-home dad for a 4-year-old son and 17-month-old daughter adopted by him and his husband.

Yet Clark acknowledged some unease as he looks ahead to late August, when his son starts kindergarten in Salt Lake City.

"How is that going to play out for him, the fact that he has two dads?" Clark wondered.

"The fact that his parents made a decision that already makes him stand out makes me nervous — that wasn't his choice," Clark said. "We will fight in every way we can to make sure he's OK."

The mix of pride, joy and apprehension conveyed by Clark is familiar to many parents — including many in America's growing ranks of gay dads.

More so than heterosexual couples or lesbians, who can bear their own children, gay men face high hurdles en route to parenthood. The two main avenues open to them — adoption or surrogacy — can be costly and complicated.

"They have to go out of their way to become fathers," said Nancy Mezey, a sociology professor at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, who has studied gay parents.

By the tens of thousands, gay men are choosing to do just that. And as they celebrate Father's Day this year, they can anticipate that their ranks will continue to swell if the U.S. Supreme Court, in a ruling due later this month, legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide.

A decade ago, it was far more common for lesbians to be raising children than for gay men. The gap remains but is closing.

Gary Gates, an expert on gay and lesbian demography with the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute, estimates that there are about 40,000 gay male couples in the U.S. who are raising children, and roughly three times as many lesbian couples who are doing so.

How are the gay dads doing? At this point, there's relatively little long-term research comparing outcomes of children raised by gay fathers to the outcomes of other children.

Among the handful of scholars who've broached the subject is Abbie Goldberg, a psychology professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

On the one hand, she believes children of gay dads and lesbian moms will be less susceptible to gender stereotypes than children raised by straight parents. However, Goldberg says it's possible that future research will reflect the challenges faced by the many gay dads who have adopted their children. On average, adopted children have higher rates of health and behavioral problems than other children, according to the research group Child Trends.

Comparing lesbians or straight families with biological kids to gay men with adopted kids "could in theory make gay dads look worse," Goldberg said.

But Goldberg said gay dads tend to have higher incomes than lesbian moms, and also tend to have good relations with the birth mothers of their adopted children. "They're more OK with granting birth moms a special role in the family," she said. "They don't feel their role as parents is threatened."

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Weston Clark plays with his daughter, Zoe, 17 months, at their home in Salt Lake City on Monday, Jun …

In Philadelphia, Greg Girdy and Paul Yorgey keep in contact with the birth mother of their adopted 4-year-old daughter, Bella. The mom attended a recent party celebrating Bella's baptism.

The dads also can call on a host of other women in their extended families to serve as female role models. Yet they sometimes bridle at unsolicited advice.

"As two men, when we adopted, a lot of people think we need help, in a way that would never happen for a straight couple," Girdy said. "Like Bella's hair care, or what clothes she should wear. ... We tend to get advice when we don't need it or want it."

In addition to Bella, the Girdy/Yorgey household includes two boys from the local foster-care system. The men expect to adopt a 7-month-old once some logistical matters are resolved, while the other boy, who's nearly 5, may be returned soon to his mother.

"That's one of the stresses we face," said Girdy, a lawyer. "We're two non-biological dads. Any time possible, the family court wants to reunify that kid with the mom, even if the mom shows no connection with the kid."

Girdy and Yorgey have been a couple for 11 years, and married in March 2014, the same month that Bella's adoption was completed. They had been talking about having kids since early in their relationship, but once they started the adoption process, it took four years before Bella joined the family.

The dads are a study in diversity. Girdy, a 45-year-old African-American, grew up in Texas, and still roots avidly for the football team of the University of Texas, his alma mater. Yorgey, 30, grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, part of an Irish-Polish family devoted to the NFL's Eagles.

"When we were dating, we never referred to ourselves as a gay couple," Girdy said. "But once we did adopt, we needed to show Bella we are proud of who we are, so when someone asks her who her parents are, she can proudly say, 'I have two dads.'"

A similar brand of family pride has been on display at the U.S. Capitol since Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat, and his partner, Marlon Reis, became dads. They have a 3½-year-old son, Caspian, and a 1-year-old daughter, Cora.

Polis said he and Reis face the same challenges as other parents — "There's no gay way or straight way to change diapers in the middle of the night."

However, he hopes his family might have some influence on House colleagues who have opposed legal recognition of same-sex couples. "Even the most conservative Republicans like to hold Cora or talk to Caspian when I bring them on the floor of the House," Polis said.

In Salt Lake City, Weston Clark and Brandon Mark also are feeling welcomed as they settle in to married life and child-rearing.

Clark, 36, and Mark, 37, have been a couple for 15 years, and adopted their son, Xander, in 2010 when there seemed to be no foreseeable prospect of same-sex marriage becoming legal in Utah. At the time, Utah law even blocked gay couples from adopting, so the two men established residency in California and completed the adoption there.

On Dec. 20, 2013, as they were in the process of adopting their second child, change came suddenly. U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby, in a ruling that was soon echoed in numerous other states, struck down Utah's ban on same-sex marriage.

Clark, who received a text message with the news, was excited yet worried that the opportunity to wed might be brief. He called Mark at work with a question, "Do you want to go get married?"

"We wanted to get it done in the window," Clark said. "We had our kids. We wanted protection for them."

While firing off text messages to friends and family, the men rushed to the county clerk's office late in the afternoon.

"It was just chaos," Clark recalled. "We got there at 4:45. We got married by the mayor, on live TV."

Looking back, Clark says the decision to raise children — made in 2010 — was even more momentous for him and Mark than the decision to get married.

"We asked ourselves many times: Do we really want to do this? Is it good for us as a couple? Is it good for the child to bring them into that environment?" Clark said.

"There's no question that having a child has been beneficial to me and our relationship," Clark added. "We had given thought from the beginning to whether having these kids would be good for them in the long run ... So far it's been amazing."

One of the couple's key decisions involved the division of work and family responsibilities. Mark works for a Salt Lake City law firm, while Clark, a former high school teacher, says he's happy as a stay-at-home dad.

Mezey, the Monmouth University sociologist, says the initial division of work/family responsibilities can be challenging for some pairs of gay dads. But she says there's research suggesting that those who decide to stay at home with the kids are often pleased at the results. "They challenge dominant beliefs that dads are primarily breadwinners and can't be the primary nurturers," Mezey said.

Overall, Mezey believes gay fathers can carve out a distinctive niche for themselves.

"They're adopting children that other people don't want to adopt. They're teaching their children tolerance and expanding definitions of gender roles," she said. "They are helping to redefine what it means to be a real man."

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Follow David Crary on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CraryAP

PARIS (AP) — Its imams preach austere piety, its tenets demand strict separation of sexes — and some of its most radical adherents are heeding the call of jihad. Salafism, an Islamic movement based on a literal reading of the Quran, is on the rise in France, Germany and Britain, security officials say, with Salafis sharply increasing their influence in mosques and on the streets.

The trend worries European authorities, who see Salafism as one of the inspirational forces for young Europeans heading to Syria or Iraq to do battle for the Islamic State group. Experts, however, point out that the vast majority of Salafis are peace-loving.

In Germany, there are currently about 7,000 Salafis in the country — nearly double the 3,800 estimated four years ago, the Interior Ministry said last month. About 100 French mosques are now controlled by Salafis, a small number compared to the more than 2,000 Muslim houses of worship, but more than double the number four years ago, a senior security official told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. France does not do head-counts by religious practices or origins.

In Britain the numbers are on the rise, too. Seven percent of Britain's 1,740 mosques are run by Salafis, according to Mehmood Naqshbandi, an expert on Britain's Muslims and counter-extremism adviser to the British government who keeps a database of the various currents of Islam in Britain. He says those numbers are steadily growing, especially among young people — and that a quarter to half of British Muslims under 30 "accept some parts or all of the Salafi theology."

Today, the Internet is largely seen as the main route for youth to quickly radicalize. But radicalization can be cultivated in places where Muslims socialize, like mosques. And there, said the French security official, it is Salafis who are considered the principle purveyors of radical ideology.

Experts say Salafis in France have been waging a campaign of stealth to take over mosques. First they develop a following, then begin criticizing the imam in order to win control over the faithful, security officials and moderate Muslims say. Youth and converts to Islam are considered the most vulnerable to such messages.

Experts of Islam divide Salafis into three groups: the traditional brand of "quietists" who eschew politics; those who become politicized; and the hardcore worshippers who follow the call of jihad.

Today, Salafism has become a buzzword for danger. In Germany, authorities consider all Salafis as extremists, and security officials in Europe believe there is a direct line from the peaceful version to the version that embraces jihad — and risks tempting the fragile into fanaticism.

"The bridge is short," said Alain Rodier, a former intelligence officer who is now a terrorism specialist.

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In this Thursday, May 21, 2015 photo a Muslim woman walks by a poster for French magazine Marianne r …

Salafism, in principle, should not be a cause for concern, said Naqshbandi, the British expert. But, he said, the very simplicity of its message means anyone can warp it to his own ends.

"People who want to pursue militant political Islam have a set of tools available ... which they can twist to argue their case," Naqshbandi said. He called the Islamic State group, which champions Salafism, the prime example of how the theology can be abused.

Those who practice Salafism — which comes from the word "salafs," or ancestors — seek to emulate the Islam of the prophet Muhammad and his early followers, which they consider the purest form of the religion. Salafis, who are Sunni Muslims, are easily identifiable. Men wear beards and robes above the ankle and women often cover their faces.

A mosque outside Lyon won an unusual case last week against a Salafi worshipper taken to court after months of tension. Faouzi Saidi, 51, was convicted of troubling public order inside a house of worship and fined. He admitted to criticizing the imam for what he claimed were theological lapses, but claimed he only once held "parallel prayers" in a corner with a group of followers.

The case was thought to be the first in France by Muslims against a Muslim invoking a 1905 law to guarantee secularism — used by the government to pass bans on headscarves and face-covering veils.

France has worked to put a safety ring around Islam since deadly January terror attacks in Paris, seeking to stifle the spread of extremism in areas considered fertile terrain. Authorities have notably started taking down Internet sites that glorify terrorism and are pressing ahead with a training program to instill imams with French values.

Critics say police often infringe upon the freedom of worship in their mission to monitor Salafi extremists. "It would be naive to think there is never a risk," said Samir Amghar, a specialist on Salafism. But to consider that every sign of ultraconservative Islam presents a danger "risks stigmatizing a large majority of Muslims."

And some Salafis say that the common image of their lives as being one of rigid worship — with no enjoyment — is a myth.

Olivier Corel, a Salafi who reportedly figured in the religious life of Mohammed Merah — who killed three children, a rabbi and three paratroopers in 2012 — went skiing with his wife in the Pyrenees in January.

"We have fun. We have fun. We have fun," his wife told the AP by telephone, before hanging up.

Rachid Abou Houdeyfa, a Salafi imam in the western French city of Brest known for his You Tube sermons of do's and don'ts, created one video showing himself and a buddy in a pleasure boat and titled it "Can One Have Fun?"

"We're going swimming," he said before diving into the water.

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David Rising in Berlin and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

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Damascus (AFP) - Islamic State group jihadists have mined the spectacular ancient ruins in Syria's Palmyra, an antiquities official and monitor said Sunday, prompting fears for the UNESCO World Heritage site.

The reports came one month after the extremist group overran the central Syrian city.

Syria's antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that the group had laid mines and explosives in Palmyra’s Greco-Roman ruins.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said the explosives were laid on Saturday.

"But it is not known if the purpose is to blow up the ruins or to prevent regime forces from advancing into the town," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said regime forces had launched heavy air strikes against the residential part of Palmyra in the past three days, killing at least 11 people.

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The ancient Syrian city of Palmyra is famed for its extensive and well-preserved ruins (AFP Photo/)

"The regime forces are to the west outside the city, and in recent days they have brought in reinforcements suggesting they may be planning an operation to retake Palmyra," he added.

A political source told AFP that a leading commander had been dispatched to the region to organise an offensive to recapture and secure Palmyra and several key gas fields nearby.

Abdulkarim also said Sunday he had received reports from Palmyra residents that the ruins had been mined.

"We have preliminary information from residents saying that this is correct, they have laid mines at the temple site," he told AFP.

"I hope that these reports are not correct, but we are worried."

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An image made available by Jihadist media outlet Welayat Homs on May 30, 2015, allegedly shows the T …

He urged "Palmyra's residents, tribal chiefs and religious and cultural figures to intervene to prevent this... and prevent what happened in northern Iraq", referring to IS's destruction of heritage sites there.

"I am very pessimistic and feel sadness," he added.

- 'Irreplaceable treasure' -

IS captured Palmyra, which is famed for its extensive and well-preserved ruins, on May 21.

The group has regularly heavily mined its territory to make it more difficult to recapture.

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A Syrian army soldier fires artillery shells towards Islamic State jihadists in northeastern Palmyra …

The city's fall prompted international concern about the fate of the heritage site described by UNESCO as of "outstanding universal value".

Before it was overrun, the head of the UN cultural body urged that the ruins be spared, saying they were "an irreplaceable treasure for the Syrian people, and the world".

IS has released several videos documenting its destruction of heritage sites in Iraq and Syria.

In its extreme interpretation of Islam, statues, idols and shrines amount to recognising objects of worship other than God and must be destroyed.

There have been no reports of damage to sites in Palmyra since IS seized it, though the group's fighters reportedly entered the city's museum, which had largely been emptied of its collection before the jihadists arrived.

The group executed more than 200 people in and around Palmyra in the days after capturing the city, including 20 who were shot dead in the ancient ruins, according to the Observatory.

Before Syria's war began, more than 150,000 tourists visited Palmyra each year, admiring its beautiful statues, more than 1,000 columns and formidable necropolis of over 500 tombs.

It had already suffered before IS's arrival, with clashes between rebels and government forces in 2013 leaving collapsed columns and statues in their wake.

The site is also believed to have been looted during the chaos of the war that began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

In December, the UN said nearly 300 cultural heritage sites in Syria, including Palmyra, had been destroyed, damaged and looted.

More than 230,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict started.