The Tampa-based Florida Family Association has its targets set on a new sight: Marvel Comics. The conservative organization that says it’s â┚¬Å”defending American Valuesâ┚¬Â is upset with Marvel Comics and its parent company, Disney, for featuring the same-sex wedding of two of its heroes in â┚¬Å”Astonishing X-Menâ┚¬Â #51.
â┚¬Å”It is shameful that two companies like Marvel and Disney would deliberately create a superhero homosexual wedding for our children to embrace,â┚¬Â the FFA wrote on its website.
The comic features the marriage of Jean-Paul Beaubier, also known as Northstar, to his longtime boyfriend, Kyle. The issue was released in June.
The group's anti-gay rhetoric isn't anything new. Recently, the FFA flew a plane over central Florida to â┚¬Å”warnâ┚¬Â tourists about Gay Days. It has asked its supporters to print a form letter from its site that urges retailers to stop selling the comic book.
â┚¬Å”The issue has crossed the line by attempting to legitimize same-sex marriage and asking kids to fantasize about their own homosexual wedding,â┚¬Â the letter reads.
One retailer, based in Arlington, Tex., told the Associated Press that the threats from the FFA will not impact his decision on selling the comic.
â┚¬Å”Any emails we get are not going to have any impact on what we're doing,â┚¬Â said Buddy Saunders, 65, who owns Lone Star Comics. â┚¬Å”I'm not going to stop selling it. It's just another comic book. People have a right to protest anything they want to.â┚¬ÂÂ
Saunders said he has received about 300 e-mails from members of the group, many which seem to be coming from the same person.
