Northstar, Kyle, and friends

Jean-Paul Beaubier, also known as the X-Man Northstar, and his long-time boyfriend Kyle Jinadu married last Wednesday in a lavish ceremony in New York City’s Central Park. X-Men, Avengers, Kyle’s parents—and Mayor Mike Bloomberg were (and are) all in attendance. The highly anticipated comic book marriage was published in Astonishing X-Men #51, written by Marjorie M. Liu and illustrated by Mike Perkins. Northstar was introduced in 1979 and came out in 1992, the first openly gay Marvel superhero (Marvel nemesis DC Comics announced June 1st that The Green Lantern is also gay). Groom Kyle Jinadu is a “normal” —not “superpowered”. The Advocate reports that the mayor’s office is also advertising in issue #51, touting “New York City as a great place for a destination wedding.”

To prove that, New York City’s Midtown Comics celebrated the marriages of two human couples, Scott Everhart and Jason Welker, and Khris Wilson and Chris Orme. “We are geeks in love, and what better way to tie the knot than in a comic shop!” said groom Everhart.

“We’re honored to take part in this event today, and to help promote equality and tolerance, in the spirit of the X-Men themselves”, said Gerry Gladston, co-owner of Midtown Comics.

A belated congratulations to all.

(Queerty.com reports “There were some indications this was a gay wedding—the band played “It’s Raining Men”—and some that it was a comics-nerd wedding as well—the theme song from the old Spider-Man cartoon was also played.”)

I’ve poked around on a dozen forums, and found that news of the comic character union was greeted with near universal enthusiasm and approval. I haven’t made an exhaustive search of every single comment, obviously, but, nonetheless, I did notice something in those forums, or rather, I noticed the absence of something. This is a same-sex marriage—but it’s also an interracial marriage, and I didn’t find a single mention of that fact.

The debate over same-sex marriage has reminded many of us that until recently interracial marriages were similarly prohibited in many states. It was only in 1967, in Loving v. Virginia, that anti-miscegenation laws were finally struck down by the Supreme Court. Then, as now, what God intended—and the assurance that privileged intermediaries could know those intentions—justified the denial of civil rights.

Before sentencing Mildred and Richard Loving to a year in jail, Leon Bazile, the original judge in Loving v. Virginia, defended their arrest and conviction (the police had invaded the couple’s bedroom while they were sleeping), writing:

“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay, and red, and placed them on separate continents, and but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend the races to mix.”

Today, of course, no public official, no matter how retrograde, would publish such nonsense—about race.