In their sweat shirts and with their heavy-duty camping gear, Frank Finamore and Peter Velasco were as tired as many of the other unshaven dads on the Ellipse on Saturday morning, doting fathers who spent the night in a long line just to score tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll.

Only Finamore and Velasco wore rainbow leis, and the ticket they were after was for their 5-year-old son. They are gay, and like about a hundred other parents who gathered near the White House in a tent city that mushroomed Friday night, they ignored the gay-parenting instincts that in years past told them not to bother coming to mainstream events like this one.

The group mobilization will send scores of gay and lesbian parents to the White House ritual Monday morning.

“We’re hoping other people will see we’re just normal parents, like everyone else,” said Finamore, 39.

“And we’re boring, actually,” added Velasco, 35.

The overnight wait is a Washington tradition that looks like a giant slumber party cradled between the White House and the Washington Monument. It’s military dads playing cards under a tent and suburban moms dishing all night about Brad Pitt’s hair.

This year, they all had something more to talk about: the large group of gays and lesbians that was impossible to miss and formed a new patchwork for the 128-year-old springtime rite. At times, the egg roll regulars were interrupted by gay and lesbian parents offering rainbow-sprinkled doughnuts.

“As long as they keep it about the families, it’s OK that they’re here. I don’t have a problem with it,” said Sean Harrell, 36, who sat all night in line with his military buddies to get tickets for his 12- and 6-year-old children. “I just hope they don’t politicize it. This is not the place for that.”

Until a movement began months ago to bring gay and lesbian parents to the Easter fest this year, it would never have occurred to many of them to bring their kids to a White House event, they said.

Last year, Colleen Gillespie, a New York University professor, got tickets for her partner and their daughter. After a night spent talking with other parents in line, she thought it would be the perfect setting for people to see what gay parents look like.

So she worked with some gay rights groups to launch an Internet campaign encouraging gay and lesbian parents to take part. The network organized rides, homestays and even volunteers to stand in line for those who couldn’t make it Friday night.

Many of the gay parents made plans to bail out if they were met by protesters. Some of the people in line whispered as they walked by and pointed, but little else happened.

One woman in a lawn chair shouted, “I’m glad you made it” to a group of folks in rainbow leis, then nudged the friend sitting next to her. “Those are the gays,” she explained.