March 16--More powerful than the celebrities lining up to boycott Dolce Gabbana, more powerful even than Elton John's spot-on, outraged tweet, are the images of beloved children -- children conceived through less-than-traditional means -- flooding social media.
The Italian design duo, proving their prices aren't the only thing fantastically divorced from reality (a Sicily tote can be yours for a mere $22,500), revealed in a recent interview that they don't believe gay couples should become parents.
"The only family is the traditional one," the pair told the Italian magazine Panorama. "Life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed."
"I'm not convinced by those I call the children of chemicals, synthetic children," Stefano Gabbana said. "Wombs for rent, sperm chosen from a catalog.
"The family is not a fad," he added. "In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging."
Wouldn't that be nice.
Some families create a supernatural sense of belonging for each other. Some of those families are "traditional" -- man, woman, kids spontaneously conceived with no medical intervention.
But that's far from the "only" way, as the designers claim.
Families who love each other deliberately, unequivocally and loudly come in all shapes and sizes. The nurturing and support that grow healthy humans and foster forever bonds -- the kind of bonds that create a sense of belonging -- have little, if anything, to do with a parent's gender or a child's conception story.
My maternal grandfather was one of 13 children, born in rural Maryland to a woman who was married at age 13 to an angry man who savagely abused her and their kids. As tradition dictated, mom, dad and their offspring tirelessly worked the farm -- the same farm where my grandfather's dad was killed in a machinery accident, leaving the kids to mostly fend for themselves.
That's not a unique story. Our histories, if we bother to look at them, are littered with tragedy -- much of it caused by a need to hew to tradition.
It's time to give tradition a rest and recognize the sweeping cultural changes for what they are: progress. Individuals are allowed to seek authentic happiness with partners of their choosing. People who long to raise children have the social freedom and medical advances to do so.
I hope when Gabbana and Domenico Dolce scroll through social media, measuring the backlash against their illustrious brand, they take a look at the faces of those kids whose parents -- straight, gay, single, married -- worked tirelessly for the opportunity to raise them.
I hope they know those kids are loved. I hope they know those kids are cherished.
And I hope they realize that trumps tradition every single time.
hstevens@tribpub.com
