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03/16/2015
Yes, I will absolutely #BoycottDolceGabbana. For my kid.
I'm not a big boycott guy. Despite popular misconception, I, a person who was front and center in the Chick-fil-A nonsense from a few years back, never called for, signed on to, or even supported any kind of "official" boycott of that fast food chain. In general, I much more prefer to make my strong case against whatever brand or personality has dished out an offense and then let the market play out as it will, with my personal consumer choice remaining exactly that.
But I do unequivocally support the massive boycott of Dolce & Gabbana that took shape over the weekend and that is very much in the news on this Monday afternoon. In this case, the offense is so personal and so great, and from people who should know so much better, that I have no problem telling anyone and every fashionista within earshot to make a more sartorially and socially responsible choice.
For those who are out of the loop, here is what the out gay designers said about same-sex parents and our kids:
"We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one.
"No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed."
...
Dolce added that procreation "must be an act of love", saying: "You are born to a mother and a father – or at least that’s how it should be.
"I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog."
Gabbana added: "The family is not a fad. In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging."
FULL Sir Elton John boycotts Dolce & Gabbana after row over same-sex families [Telegraph]
These words are astoundingly offensive. And they're not just offensive to gay couples, but to the millions of opposite-sex couples who have also used IVF and other methods to start a family. Al Roker ably made this point on Twitter:
But more than just offending adults, whatever our sexual orientations, I'm much more concerned for what comments like these mean for children like mine (and Al's). As a father, my whole world now involves the protection of my child. My scope has morphed and expanded in a way that I could never put into words. When I walk through the sidewalks of Manhattan, I am in constant search of any threat, be it physical or mental or
what-have-ya, that might in some way encumber or even endanger my kid. Her safety and wellbeing is my everything.
As she grows up, she will someday come across comments like these. Fortunately most of them will be connected to sources who I suspect the wide majority will view as fringe and out-of-touch by the time she reaches an age of cognizance. But when you have gay men who run a major brand—and very much an omnipresent brand in a fashion city like the one my family calls home—making these same kinds of comments telling her that she, a child we so loving adopted on her first breath of life as part of a situation more selfless and compassionate than any I've ever before experienced, is somehow a "fad" or detached from what it means to be a family, these harmful and negligent ideas take on a whole new weight. Mr. Dolce and Mr. Gabbana's comments are not just something ignorant that some politico or reality TV star said to diminish me or my marriage or my equal rights. These comments are nothing short of psychological warfare against my child and her burgeoning mind.
I will never forget these words. I will never again purchase anything that features the D&G logo that these designers emblazon onto clothing (usually in a garish way). There is little way for them to right this. It was just too wrong.
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