Being on the other side of an Elton John beef is not the place anyone wants to be, but that's exactly where Domenico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana found himself over the weekend after he said some pretty messed up things about same-sex couples raising children in an interview with Panorama.
"You are born and you have a father and a mother," said Dolce, "or at least it should be so... I call children of chemistry 'synthetic children.' Rented wombs, semen chosen from a catalogue...psychiatrists are not ready to confront the effects of this experimentation." When he heard Dolce's statements, Elton John took to Instagram to urge his 81.5k followers to boycott Dolce & Gabbana, writing a very passionate response to the Italian designers:
"How dare you refer to my beautiful children as "synthetic". And shame on you for wagging your judgemental little fingers at IVF - a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfil their dream of having children. Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana."
Stefano Gabbana stood up for his partner and responded to John's boycott, calling the musician's words ignorant. "I didn't expect this, coming from someone whom I considered, and I stress 'considered', an intelligent person like Elton John," he told Corriere della Sera. He also said that "Dolce has his own ideas," and that John's attacks on the company are "fascist...We have always lived our sexuality in private. We’ve never raised our voices. Now they are putting words that are not ours into our mouths, saying we’re against gay adoptions. Not true. Domenico simply expressed his opinion on the traditional family and medically assisted fertilisation. Do others think differently? That’s their privilege. But we want the same respect."
Gabbana explained that he and Dolce don't see eye-to-eye on the topic of raising children together. "Domenico said he preferred a traditional family. That’s his opinion. He’s not comfortable with medically assisted fertilisation. It’s his traditional Sicilian imprinting. I see things differently from him. In mutual respect."
To read more about the controversial statements and Stefano Gabbana's response to Elton John's boycott, head over to Corriere della Sera.
[via The Cut]
