Over the last 30 years, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have dressed Madonna, designed costumes for Baz Luhrmann movies and fended off one of the most convoluted tax evasion cases in recent business history.

Well before same-sex marriage became widely recognized around the world (though not in Italy), the two were openly living together as lovers, unapologetic as they showed up in their tight white T-shirts at gay clubs like the Sound Factory. A recent ad campaign for their fashion line, Dolce & Gabbana, seemed to extol group sex.

So it was something of a surprise this week when word broke that the two men, who are no longer romantically involved but still run their business together, had given an interview in the Italian magazine Panorama in which they said they opposed gay people having families of their own.

“You are born to a mother and a father, or at least that’s how it should be,” Mr. Dolce said. “I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog.”

Source: Jacob Bernstein, www.nytimes.com