IVF Controversy

IVF Controversy 

The designers caused an uproar when they explained their preferences for traditional families in an interview with the Italian outlet 'Panorama' published in 2015.  The pair said "we appose gay adoptions. the only family is the traditional one...no chemical offsprings and rented uterus: Life has a natural flow, these are the things that should not be changed, you are born to a mother and a father - or at least that is how they should be, I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Uteri for rent and semen chosen from a catalog" said Domenico Dolce. According to the Guardian the comments are not new, in 2006 the designers said "I am apposed to the idea of a child growing up with two gay parents". 

These comments caused uproar within the celebrity world, gay communities and social media. 

LGBT rights activist Peter Tatchell staged a protest outside their London shop.

The hashtag #boycottdolcegabbana" started all over instagram and twitter. Celebrities reacted by taking to their social media and joined in with the hashtag; including Elton John, a legendary gay singer posted on his instagram to call for a boycott of the Italian designers following their comments about the normalcy of gay families. He said " How dare you refer to my beautiful children as 'synthetic'. And shame on you for wagging your (judmental ) fingers at IVF - a miracle has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay to fulfill their dream of having children". 

Former tennis star Martina Navratilova, who recently married her girlfriend tweeted - "wow - I had no idea it will be interesting to see of this ridiculousness hurts them in the bank".

More celebrities from Ricky Martin to Courtney Love are echoing Eltons Johns post, reffering to the luxury designers views as outdated and promising to dispose of the brands products. 

Gabbana responded to the criticism by flooding his instagram feed with the messages of support that he had received from fans. In reply to Elton Johns comment he wrote; "#boycottdolcegabbana because is different! And you hate the different opinion!! Racist dictators. Freedom to speak".

Dolce apologised for the remarks made surrounding IVF and gay families 6 months later after the comments were made in an interview with US Vogue. He said " I am sorry. It was not my intention to offend anyone." He explained that these comments came after a period of "soul searching".He also stated "Ive talked to Stefano a lot about this. Ive realised that my words were inappropriate, and I apologise. They are just kids. You don't need labels, baby labels". His partner Stefano Gabbana went on to admit that he had tone with the idea of hav9ing children himself: "I had thought of going t California and having a baby but I couldn't bring the baby back to Italy because you need the mothers passport. I asked about adoption I'm Italy, its very hard for straight couples here - imagine if you are gay!" At present it is still illegal for gay couples to adopt in Italy. 

As the designing duo are actually both gay and their relationship ended in 2005, they lost a lot of respect for the fans who admired the designers and the morals that they stood for. As well as the hashtag circulating the couple lost lots of fans and many people still hold this against Dolce and Gabbana. This controversy was very damaging for the duo's reputation and sales for the brand.

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/aug/17/domenico-dolce-apologises-for-remarks-about-ivf-and-gay-families
http://time.com/3745411/elton-john-dolce-gabbana-boycott-gay-adoption-synthetic-children/