Celebrities Boycott Dolce & Gabbana After Ridiculously Offensive ‘Traditional Family’ Tirade

ByAshley Austrew

dolce-and-gabbana-store-frontDolce & Gabbana may be on the cutting edge of fashion, but they’re certainly behind the times when it comes to gay rights and modern families. According to Advocate, designers Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana, both openly gay, recently told Italian magazine Panorama that they don’t believe in marriage equality or in gay couples raising children, stating ‘the only family is the traditional family.’

Dolce went on to declare that procreation ‘must be an act of love,’ referring to children born through artificial insemination or egg donors as ‘children of chemistry, synthetic children. Uteruses [for] rent, semen chosen from a catalog.’

The comments sparked outrage throughout Hollywood, most vocally from Elton John, who took to Instagram to voice his opinions and call for a boycott of the brand. He wrote:

“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic.’ And shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at IVF – a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfil [sic] their dream of having children. Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce & Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana”

Since Elton John’s initial post, many others have followed suit. A search of the hashtag yields hundreds of results, including tweets from big names like Perez Hilton, Ryan Murphy, Ricky Martin, and others. 

#TakeTheHateOffTheRunway#BoycottDolceGabbana We are family,we are strong,we are loved@eltonjohndotcom @huffpostgaypic.twitter.com/VUjEycNo9n

”” Chef Art Smith (@ChefArtSmith) March 15, 2015

Stefano Gabbana responded yesterday with more than 50 Instagram posts on the subject, referring to Elton John as a ‘facist’ and accusing him of policing ‘freedom of thought.’

This isn’t the first time the designers have spoken out against equality, and it’s discouraging to see two very wealthy and powerful gay men encouraging continued discrimination against the LGBTQ community like this. Their comments were not only insensitive to gay couples, but to thousands of other people from all walks of life who’ve relied on IVF to help them achieve their dream of having children.

Dolce’s comments that procreation ‘must be an act of love’ aren’t just old fashioned, they’re completely wrong. Plenty of people in the world make babies accidentally when love has nothing to do with it. Couples pursue IVF because of love, because they want to be a family and raise children. There’s nothing synthetic about that.

Hundreds of people are rallying in support of Elton John and the #BoycottDolceGabbana hashtag and that’s encouraging to see, but ultimately it’s the celebrities who will have to wage this war. As much as these comments may upset us, most of us have never been in a position to be able to afford Dolce & Gabbana clothing in the first place.

(Photo: David Herraez Calzada / Shutterstock.com)

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