Elton John urges boycott after gay designers Dolce and Gabbana come out against gay ‘marriage,’ adoption
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ROME, March 16, 2015 – Openly gay fashion legends Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are facing a backlash of controversy for saying they oppose gay “marriage” and adoption, find in vitro fertilization unnatural, and believe procreation “must be an act of love.”
“We oppose gay adoptions,” the two told the Italian magazine Panorama. “The only family is the traditional one.”
“You are born to a mother and a father – or at least that’s how it should be,” Dolce said.
“The family is not a fad. In it, there is a supernatural sense of belonging,” Gabbana added.
The fashion duo expressed their vehement opposition to IVF, a technology that homosexual couples use to have children.
“No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed,” they said.
Dolce said he opposed changing nature to create “children of chemistry, synthetic children, uteri for rent, semen chosen from a catalog.”
A host of performers, led by Elton John, have called for a boycott of the Italian designers for “lining up with the Pope and the far-Right in their support for legal discrimination.”
Elton John and David Furnish, his “husband,” have two IVF children from a surrogate mother in the United States.
“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as 'synthetic,'” the flamboyant performer wrote on Instagram. “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.”
“Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions,” John wrote. “I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again,” he said, closing with the hashtag #BoycottDolceGabbana.
John, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998, told the UK Guardian, “It’s quite outrageous that two gay fashion designers who have relied on the gay community for much of their success are opposing gay equality.” Dolce and Gabbana, in their mid-50s, have designed fashions for pro-LGBT pop stars like Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Kylie Minogue.
John's call to cut off all business from the duo – who have said their own homosexual relationship influenced their fashion styles – was soon joined by other stars.
Perez Hilton:
Ricky Martin:
At first, the duo responded on Instagram, calling Elton John a “fascist” and urging, “Boycott Elton John.”
The two, who are considered among the wealthiest homosexuals in the world, with an estimated combined net worth of $1.65 billion, have since tried to contain the outcry without completely walking away from their statements.
“We firmly believe in democracy and the fundamental principle of freedom of expression that upholds it,” Gabbana wrote. “We talked about our way of seeing reality, but it was never our intention to judge other people's choices.”
“We do believe in freedom and love,” he added.
Dolce referenced his own tight-knit family. “I'm Sicilian and I grew up in a traditional family, made up of a mother, a father, and children,” he wrote. “I am very well aware of the fact that there are other types of families and are as legitimate as the one I've known…I was talking about my personal view, without judging other people's choices and decisions.”
Family has strongly influenced the designers.
In a move nearly unheard of, Dolce and Gabbana hosted a fashion show featuring models who were mothers – carrying their babies with them as they struck a pose.
One of the models, Bianca Balti, walked down the runway pregnant to great applause.
The duo's fall/winter 2015 collection, which debuted earlier this month, was entitled, “Viva la mamma!”
It received rave reviews from the fashion press.
Note: To sign a petition to Dolce and Gabbana urging them not to back down from their remarks supporting traditional marriage, click here.
