Dolce and Gabbana accused of homophobia

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By New Worker correspondent

 

THE OUT and Proud Diamond Group and the Peter Tatchell Foundation last week led a protest outside London’s West End Dolce and Gabbana in Bond Street after Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce described the children of gay couples and those born from IVF treatment as “synthetic children”.

Speaking to the Italian magazine Panorama, alongside his business partner, Stefano Gabbana, Domenico Dolce said children should be born to a mother and a father: “The only family is a traditional one.

“I’m not convinced by those I call the chemical children, synthetic babies...They are wombs for hire, semen chosen from a catalogue ... psychiatrists are not ready to confront the effects of this experimentation.”

Stefano Gabbana added: “The family is not a fad.”

In 2006, he told the Daily Mail: "I am opposed to the idea of a child growing up with two gay parents." Both designers have in the past strongly opposed same-sex marriage.

Gay rights campaigners are now calling for a worldwide boycott of the high fashion Dolce and Gabanna shop chain.

LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation and co-organiser of Thursday’s protest, said: "It is hypocritical for Stefano Gabbana to oppose gay parents, given that in 2006 he expressed a desire to have a child via artificial insemination and surrogacy.

“He's guilty of double standards. Gabbana wanted for himself what he now condemns other gay men for wanting.

"These comments are not only an attack on same-sex parents but on all parents who've had children with the aid of fertility treatment, including thousands of heterosexual couples.

"Dolce and Gabbana are echoing ill-informed, outdated and homophobic prejudices about gay parents. Research spanning 40 years shows that children bought up by gay mums and dads are just as happy and well-adjusted as those from traditional heterosexual families.

“The key to a child’s welfare is the love of their parents, not the parents’ sexual orientation. They are playing into the hands of the Vatican and far right political parties that oppose gay families,” said Tatchell.

Co-organiser of the protest, Edwin Sesange, director of the LGBT Out and Proud Diamond Group, added: “Please join us in sending a clear message to Dolce and Gabbana that same-sex families are loving, happy families.

“This issue is not about same-sex families alone but also about the many straight families who have benefited from fertility treatment. Dolce and Gabbana’s statements add to the stigma, shame, prejudice, rejection and intolerance often suffered by same-sex parents and their children. They should withdraw their statements and apologise.”