Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, creators of Dolce & Gabbana are getting flak over comments they made about same-sex parents and babies conceived via artificial insemination.
In an interview with Italian magazine Panorama, the duo, who are also gay and were once a couple, said they didn’t think gay couples should have children.
“You are born to a mother and a father. Or at least that’s how it should be,” Dolce told the magazine. “I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented wombs, semen chosen from a catalog.”
He continued, “you are born to a mother and a father. Or at least that’s how it should be.”
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The top designer of high-priced high end clothing then went on, “I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented wombs, semen chosen from a catalog.”
Gabbana was also quoted as saying, “We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one.”
Many couples, including same-sex and male -female ones, opt for conceiving a baby via non-traditional methods like intrauterine insemination, in which fertilized embryos are created in a lab from eggs and sperm and then implanted into a woman or surrogacy which requires sperm to be transferred into a woman using a catheter.
It’s a popular option for those who want to have kids with their own DNA.
Dolce & Gabbana have released statements in response to the backlash. Read it here
E! Online reminds us that Miss World 2014 Rolene Strauss was conceived via IVF to a heterosexual couple, and is a “test tube” baby.
Elton John was the most outspoken celebrity to the remarks. He launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #BoycottDolceGabbana.
“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic,'” John wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday. “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 fulfill their dream of having children.”
The award-winning veteran performer remarked:
“Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions,” said the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana”
Other celebs including Sharon Stone and Ricky Martin, who is also gay and has a set of adopted twin children, spoke out in social media in support of John.
John married his partner David Furnish in England in December 2014. The two are parents to 4-year old Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John and 1-year old Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John, both born to a surrogate mothers.
Following Gabanna’s Instagram reply saying, “This is the real respect for a different opinion????”. They’ve gotten supporters too who are using the hashtag #BoycottJohn.
They’ve since released a formal statement in reply (mentioned above) saying it was not their intent to judge the choices of others.
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