Marvin Gaye had a bitter relationship with his father, Marvin Gay Sr., since his childhood. Marvin Sr. was a Christian minister and strict disciplinarian who often physically punished his children. He was also a cross-dresser, a fact widely known in the family's Washington, D.C., neighborhood which made the younger Marvin a target of bullying.[3] Due to this "sexual ambiguity" on the part of his father, as well as rumors of Gaye's own homosexuality (and in tribute to one of Gaye's favorite singers, Sam Cooke),[4] the younger Marvin added an "e" to his last name when he became famous.