Elton John Rips Dolce & Gabbana, Calls for Boycott Over ‘Synthetic Children’ Comments

“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic,’” John says in a statement posted on his Instagram page

Elton John is furious with the founders of Dolce & Gabbana.

On Saturday night the music legend called for a boycott of the luxury fashion house after its founders, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, said they opposed same-sex marriage and gay adoptions in an interview with an Italian magazine.

“You are born to a mother and a father. Or at least that’s how it should be,” the pair told Panorama in the interview published last week. “I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented wombs, semen chosen from a catalog.”

The comments didn’t sit well with John who is married to longtime partner David Furnish. The couple has two sons through a surrogate.

“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic,'” John wrote in a lengthy statement posted on his Instagram page (see below). “And shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at IVF – a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfill their dream of having children.”

Dolce and Gabbana were a couple for 23 years before breaking-up in 2005. Despite their sexuality, they have previously spoken out against same-sex marriage.

Elton John Instagram” width=”618” height=”412” srcset=”http://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Elton-John-Instagram-300×200.jpg 300w, http://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Elton-John-Instagram-340×226.jpg 340w, http://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Elton-John-Instagram.jpg 618w” sizes=”(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px” /> Meanwhile, several stars are joining John in criticizing the designing duo, including “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy“>Ryan Murphy who tweeted, “These designers horrifying views are never in fashion.”
Music sensation Ricky Martin also took issue with the comments in a tweet and accused the designers of spreading hate and telling them to “Wake up, It’s 2015.”

D&G is a favorite among Hollywood stars including Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson and Christian Bale.

Raven Symone “I’m Not African American”

If you care to read my words. Here they are. I enjoy being open and honest in my social media networks because I trust the people I know will have respectful discourse, while learning new things about each other and opening our eyes to numerous points of view. Please feel free to disagree with me on this matter, I have a very strong opinion about identity, which brings me to this topic.

Raven-Symone (an actress, who famously played Olivia on “The Cosby Show” and was Raven on “That’s So Raven”) can identify herself however she pleases. It’s her identity. If she wants to say she’s American and that she is a multitude of racial identities, then that is her prerogative. She happens to like humans. She is in a happy, healthy relationship with a woman. That is also perfectly fine. I ain’t hatin on your same sex love. Shiiiiiit, and let me go on and say that your hair was hella laid in that interview. But let’s not talk about physical features. Let’s talk about identity.

I don’t identify as African-American either. That label is problematic. I cringe whenever people say it. It makes me uncomfortable, especially when White folks say it. I’ve been wondering why. I think it’s the go to word when people are too afraid to say Black, while knowing the N-word is absolutely out of the question (though, I can write a looooong essay about that word and my comfortable uncomfort with it). Simply put, what do we call ourselves when our true identity has been stolen, sent on a boat, slaved and hung on trees to be forgotten like leaves in the wind?

Being called African-American is an unfortunate term. It holds so much history and is too politically correct for me. I call myself Black. I’m not the color Black, but Black culture is something I am most comfortable identifying with. Black culture is my family that moved my mother from rural Mississippi to Watts, California in the mid-60s after the Watts Riots or my Texan father, who isn’t in my life anymore, but I am still connected to Black Southern ideals. Black culture is the hip-hop, r&b, and soul music my mother and father would play on our dope ass stereo system when I was growing up. Black culture is learning to finally love my dark skin complexion in my 20s when I used to try to scratch it off in my younger years. Black culture is cultivating beautiful friendships with Black women and understanding that each and every one of us has dealt with some sort of negative feedback about our bodies, our hair, our skin tones, being over sexualized, assaulted, hurt, shamed, and supporting each other through that BULLSHIT; somehow making each other smile, even though we sometimes don’t on the inside. I mentioned hair briefly. Black culture is HAIR. I can’t even begin to tell you how many hairstyles I’ve had in a span of five years, but know I looked mutha fuckin fly with every new hairdo. Black hair, homies. That curly shit is so versatile. And if you choose to wear hair that belonged to someone else at one point (or not, that shit can be synthetic, too), that’s creativity and sistahs can pull that off so amazingly. If you really wanna know, I do know that I have some Native American in my blood. My great grandmother was half Cherokee, but I don’t identify with being Native American. I couldn’t begin to understand their struggle or what their culture is like. I’m Black. That’s how I identify.

I live in Sweden. People are Swedish, but there are so many identities immigrating to Sweden. People of the Middle East, Africans, Asians. It’s becoming a melting pot, but Swedish folks still have their language and their culture. Out here, I am not Black. I am not other’d by my skin color, I am seen as American. No one asks if I’m African or what I’m mixed with. They say, “Oh, you’re American!” It interests them. They are fascinated that I am from California. I have yet to feel that unspoken awkwardness of being Black in a room full of White, Swedish people. It’s odd.

But no one here has asked me if being American is how I identify. Because I actually don’t identify as American. They just assume. I was born in the U.S, that much is true. And that in itself holds soooooo much privilege. Do you know how easy it is to travel with a US Passport? Do you know how easily I skirted through customs just because I’m from the USA? Or how easy it could be to get citizenship here if I decided to stay? Being American makes me uncomfortable. It’s ironic how I have so much privilege in this country, but I barely have privilege in THE USA!!! In the US, I’m a poor, single Black woman. No one really sympathizes with that. I worked a shitty minimum wage job ($8.50 an hour) and no one gave a fuck that I had a college degree. I’m not proud to be American when there’s Black folks getting profiled, incarcerated, and murdered every day! I’m not proud to be American when there’s single Black mothers struggling to feed their kids. Why would I be proud of a place that I don’t even really belong in? I can attest to that with conservative attacks on reproductive rights in the government, being told feminism is a joke, being called a ‘bitch’ or a ‘slut’ when I ignore male’s sexual advances, being followed in stores, or being told I’m not attractive (or on the other coin, that I am attractive for a Black girl… *major side eye and eye roll*)

The list can go on, but I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad. I’m just keeping it real.
Black culture cultivated me. Black culture believes in me when no one else will. That’s why I choose to identify in that way. If you really want to know my full identification, I am a Black, young, able-bodied, vision impaired (with a strong refusal to wear contacts), woman with strong feminist ideals. But you can call me Bree, as well. My mommy named me and I love it.

Back to Raven-Symone’. I went on a tangent, an important one, though, so bear with me. She says she doesn’t want to be called African-American. I get it. Black folks are a multitude of things, like a gumbo pot, but it’s still gumbo. We’re still Black. That’s how people see us in America. So I politely agree and disagree. Being American ain’t nothin to be proud of if you’re not White, able-bodied, rich or male (and if you identify as female, you better be attractive). Yeah, we live in a melting pot, but are we really accepted? We have a long way to go with that one.

I also disagree with Raven-Symone’ because she had a once in a lifetime platform (with her laid hair, if I must reiterate, because hair is a part of Black culture) in an interview with Oprah (Oprah expands to many audiences) to really be a voice in popular media for Black Queer women!!!! She totally denied us. Black culture is about sticking together. It’s about solidarity. She shut that shit down and that’s what I’m not okay with. When will another Black woman who is attracted to Black women have that chance? To engage young people or advocate for Black Queer identity? To see little Olivia on tv to a proud Queer Black woman would have been sooooooo fascinating for people to see and learn from!

That could have been you, Raven-Symone’…but you trippin.

Celebrity status is a huge platform in the US. We are constantly watching them and listening to them whether we like to admit it or not. So listen, this is kind of a big deal because celebrities have power. We’ve got people like, Beyonce’, finally identifying as feminist and wearing that label proudly. She’s still got work to do, but putting Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the song “Flawless” was huge progress. We’ve got all kinds of women chanting, “I woke up like dis”, despite the grammatical incorrectness. Cause we did wake up like this! I’m gonna pull a Kanye here for a moment to really get my point across: YOU WOKE UP A WOMAN OF COLOR RAVEN!!! YOU WOKE UP ONE DAY AND REALIZED YOU LIKED WOMEN! SO WHY BACK DOWN FROM THESE THINGS, WHEN YOU COULD’VE STOOD WITH US, HOMEGURL??!!??

*kanye shrug*

*Bree Taylor holds a Bachelor’s degree in Child & Adolescent Development and Counseling at San Francisco State University. When she isn’t taking care of adorable children as an au pair in Stockholm, Sweden, she enjoys sharing her radical feminist views on reproductive justice, Black womanhood, and social injustice.

Raven-Symoné Rips Black Names, But Forgot About Her Own

By JAMILAH LEMIEUX

A person who is both legally and professionally known as "Raven-Symoné" used her enviable platform as a co-host on ABC's The View to rail against Black names.

We could honestly stop talking right here, because the story--and the jokes--write themselves. Her name is Raven hyphen alternate spelling of "Simone," complete with what could be considered a gratuitous accent mark (it does not change the pronunciation of "Symone/Simone," it is there for decoration; she essentially has the equivalent of plastic furniture covers at the end of her name,) and yet she feels compelled to punch down at those who also have names that are also Black as a dice game at a church fish fry, but may not have hit the faux French mark as well as her own. Only a blindfolded person with no sense of smell being asked to hold a plate of meat and walk into a den full of dogs could match her lack of self-awareness.

How dare you, Raven hyphen alternate spelling of "Simone?" Sitting there with a head full of colorful weave, the same sort of hair that was "ghetto," "tacky," "low-class" and "unacceptable" until it made it's way until the pages of mainstream fashion magazines?

And using "Watermelonandrea" as your example, playing off the same racist language used by people who have done us so much harm? Olivia Kendall would never.

Moment of honesty: I won't pretend that I always had the best attitude about what are often called "'hood" or "ghetto" names. When I was younger, I thought names like "Tamika" and "Keisha" were fine and pretty, but I didn't much care for those that had harder consonant sounds and apostrophes. And I maintain that prior to the UPN show, "Moesha" wasn't anyone's name and it sounded like what a White TV writer thought a Black girl's name would be (and her daddy's flat-top did not match her name. This makes sense if you think about it.) That's not to say I'm a big fan of names that we typically think of as super European either; my siblings and I have African names and I thought that was the way to go for all of us.

Well, actually, though "Jamilah" is considered to be a Swahili name, it's origins are Arabic and it is extremely common in Islamic countries. So is my daughter's name, Naima. So now we are two generations deep into non-Muslim women carrying Muslim names; who on Earth would I be to shame someone who created a name for her own child? Isn't that part of our polyglot African-American Blackness, this ability to create culture on the fly and to take what we can find of our African roots and make it into something that is uniquely ours?

The whole world is trying to tear us apart and you want to discount the value of some other Black person because she, TOO, has a Black name, Raven hyphen alternate spelling of "Simone?" You got the nerve. Meanwhile, even White folks are naming their kids things like "Raekwon," "Dapper" and "Hummincomingatcha" these days, but okay.

But even before I came to fully embrace the importance of these names and our ability to name ourselves as we see fit, I always understood that behind a "La," "Sha" or "Ty" name was my brother or sister. What would posses a Black person to say "I'm not going to hire someone with a name like that," when so much greatness has come from people with names like that? Wasn't Raven hyphen alternate spelling of "Simone" just on Empire with Jussie Smollett, Taraji P. Henson and the artist formerly known as Terrence Dashon Howard? Didn't she bounce on the knee of Phylicia Rashad? Didn't a good chunk of her fortune come from playing Galleria Garabaldi in The Cheetah Girls franchise? And isn't' she sitting across the damn table from Whoopi "EGOT" Goldberg?

Also: Raven hyphen alternate spelling of "Simone's" full name is Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman...why not go by "Christina?" Could it be that her parents saw that her unique name could make her stand out in the entertainment industry? That it matched that buoyant personality she had as a child? We're about the same age and I have to say, I always thought she was fantastic; so incredibly beautiful and talented. What a sad disappointment she has become at nearly 30.

We can't have a hierarchy of Black names. You are either with your family, or you aren't. Being named "Naima" or "Aaliyah," "Asha," or "Imani," doesn't make you better or more sophisticated or more African than someone named "Shatasha," and the people who are dumping Shatasha's resume in the trash because of her name are happy to throw yours in there too, boo. And when a Black Becky Jane shows up in person, her resume just might be joining them. Name your kids (or yourself) what you see fit, but don't write off your own people because you don't like what they ask the world to call them.

If Waterme lonandrea can't find work as Raven hyphen alternate spelling of "Simone's" personal assistant, she can come work for me. It won't pay as much, but at least she won't have to deal with an insufferable sense of self-loathing and anti-Black pathology in her boss's every word.

Jamilah-Asali Isoké Lemieux is EBONY Magazine's Senior Editor. Her colleagues include women named Kierna, Lynnette, Rema, Ericka, Kyra, Najja, Tia, Genese, Marielle, LaToya and Shantell, all of whom are Black and quite happy about it.

Raven-Symone Shocker: Harriet Tubman Shouldn’t Be On $20 Bill — ‘I Don’t Like That Idea’

America wants Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill…but Raven-Symone does not! While guest hosting ‘The View’ on May 13, the former Disney star shockingly explained why she wouldn’t want to see the heroic abolitionist on American currency — and people are outraged!

Sorry, Harriet Tubman, but according to Raven-Symone, you do NOT deserve to be on the $20 bill. While discussing a new petition to make American currency less white and male, and replace Andrew Jackson on the bill, Raven shared a shocking opinion — she does not agree with American voters’ decision that Harriet should be the $20’s new face. Check out some viewers’ outraged reactions!

Raven-Symone On Harriet Tubman’s $20 Bill: She Shouldn’t Be On It

“No offense to everyone who’s going to be mad at me for saying this, I don’t like that idea,” Raven said on The View, regarding the Harriet Tubman decision. “I don’t like it. I think we need to move a little bit more forward. I understand, let me just preface, I understand the history, I was taught. I’m in that culture. There’s also Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt…and I personally would’ve chosen Rosa Parks.”

Whoa, girl, why are you hating on Harriet?! Both she and Rosa made major, heroic changes and would be great representatives of our history on the $20 bill. But, according to Raven, we’re too far removed from Harriet’s time, and she wants to see someone more current grace the bill.

“I would’ve chosen someone who is closer to the progression that we’re doing now, and I know you have to understand history so you don’t repeat it, but that doesn’t really happen in our world because we still repeat history of hating other cultures over and over again,” she explained. “I would’ve chosen a different one, no offense.”

Uh…kind of confusing? But everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, I guess? However, many were outraged over Raven’s comments, and took to Twitter to blast her for it.

WE’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MONSTER THAT IS RAVEN-SYMONÉ

According to published reports, Raven Symone might be getting a permanent spot on ABC’s “The View,” and honestly, it’s not a bad idea.

No, really.

As reported here by Jazmine Denise Rogers: “Viewers may be cringing anytime Raven-Symoné opens her mouth, but apparently, there are folks who want the former child star to become a permanent fixture on the daytime TV series. Among the select few who are hopeful that this happens is veteran “View” host Whoopi Goldberg.

“We love saying it, but Raven and Michelle will be back tomorrow,” Goldberg said. “We’re trying to make it permanent, so write in to everybody.”

Raven and Michelle Collins have appeared as guest co-hosts on the talk show over a dozen times since March and according to a “Page Six” source, ABC executives are interested in bringing the 29-year-old on full-time.

“She was interesting and provocative,” the ABC insider said. “Raven would be great as a regular host.”

I bet she would be great because she already has been great — for the ratings at least.

If you recall, the ladies of “The View” had been getting their wigs snatched by CBS’ “The Talk.” As reported earlier this year by The Hollywood Reporter, “The new Disney-ABC Television Group president officially starts Feb. 1, and one of his first tough decisions is what to do with the flagging round table show ‘The View’….

“A hastily executed reboot in the summer has failed to reverse the show’s ratings fortune: ‘The View’ is flat year-over-year among total viewers and down 9 percent among its target audience of women 25-to-54. And CBS’ ‘The Talk’ bested ‘The View’ among total viewers for the first time during the week of Jan. 12, pulling in 2.95 million viewers compared with ‘The View’s’ 2.88 million.”

Symone began guest co-hosting for “The View” in March of this year. And according to TV By The Numbers during the time she had been featured on the program, ABC’s long standing all-woman talk show “out delivered” their CBS counterpart, increasing its week-to-week total viewer lead over the ‘The Talk’ by 50 percent in the first rating quarter alone. As the site reports, the show, which has averaged 2.722 million total viewers, now leads the ‘The Talk’ in all key demos including women ages 25 to 54 and women ages 18 to 49 years old.

So what makes Symone so appealing? Well, we know it isn’t her intellect. I won’t rehash all the dumb things she has said both on and off the show, as Iva Anthony has already done a wonderful job compiling a list of all the times she has put her foot into her mouth. But the truth is what makes Symone so attractive, in short, is us.

Yup, that’s right: we the people are responsible for the rise of Symone.

You see, regardless of how dumb (or even smart) you think she is or how beneficial her opinions are to public discourse in this country, the point is that we keep talking about everything she says. I can’t tell you how many posts there have been across social media, and the Black blogosphere in particular, expressing some sort of “outrage” at what Symone has said. And I’m not just talking about the run-of-the-mill busybodies looking for something, or even someone, to gossip about. I’m talking about smart people with multiple degrees and all sorts of accolades writing long dissertation-worthy essays to rebuke the logic of someone whose greatest insight has been playing a clairvoyant on “That’s So Raven.”

Symone’s opinions matter because we have shown through our engagement that they matter. And the ABC executives have likely cued in on that. They probably have paid close attention to all the tweets on Twitter, blogs post and editorials, eyes rolls and sucked teeth declaring how much we can’t stand her, and then checked those reactions against the Nielsen ratings like, “nope. They may not like what she has to say, but they sure as hell keep tuning in to hear what she will say next.”

So, if you really want Raven-Symoné to go away, just stop talking about her. Please.

Personally, I am kind of indifferent to Symone and her antics – and I do feel that much of what she says is just a matter of creating shenanigans. In some ways, I actually feel sorry for her.  I remember a few years back Symone had gotten really into her feelings on 106 & Park about her fledging musical endeavors. She was supposed to be on the show promoting her fifth studio album and yet, came off as quite snippy to the studio audience for fake applauding their support for the project.

In all honestly, there seems to be some unresolved hurt inside of Symone about the trajectory of her career, particularly among Black audiences — and Hollywood in general — who moved on from her when she stopped being cute little ol’ Olivia. And just like Stacey Dash, she is willing to say anything particularly antagonistic to, and about, Black people because deep down, she is just not happy. Maybe being on television again will do her some good. And then she can find her happiness again and leave Black people alone. If not, there is always a Negro Wake-Up Call waiting for her around the corner…

Raven-Symone Defends TV Host Who Compared Michelle Obama to Apes: Watch

Raven-Symone has dropped herself right in it.

The Empire actor and former Cheetah Girl is now backpeddaling after she came out in support of Univision host Rodner Figueroa, who was sacked after making a crack about Michelle Obama looking like a big ape.

Appearing as a guest host on The View on Monday, Symone managed to defend the indefensible when she argued that Figueroa had a valid point, and said "some people look like animals."

Raven-Symone Talks 'Empire's' Baby Mama Drama

Figueroa was dismissed from his position on El Gordo y la Flaca after he said the First Lady "looks like she's from the cast of Planet of the Apes, the movie." When his fellow hosts confronted him, he was unrepentant, saying: "But it is true."

As the backlash against him swelled, Figueroa issued an apology letter stating that he was "not racist in any way." His act of contrition didn't win over his employers.

Actor and View co-host Rosie Perez led the conversation on Figueroa's comments. "A lot of Latin people recognize the fact that we do have African blood in us. A lot of them do not want to recognize that fact, and that's where this stems from," she said on Monday's show. "There is a secret in the Latin community, specifically the Caribbean, South American, Central American, Latin community, that they are very racist," she added. "They never want to be in the same group as black people. And it's sad. It's very, very sad. And he did say Michelle Obama looks like a cast member of the Planet of the Apes."

Raven-Symone to Oprah: 'I'm Tired of Being Labeled' 

Symone stepped in: "Was he saying it racist-like? Because, he said that he voted for her later and I don't think he was saying it racist." Perez was gobsmacked. "Oh, please! That's like saying 'I'm not a racist, I have black friends.' I'm sorry, that's racist."

After some back and forth with the hosts, Symone dropped a clanger when she said, "Michelle, don't fire me from this right now, but some people look like animals. Is that rude? I look like a bird! So can I be mad if somebody calls me Toucan Sam?" Whoopi Goldberg interjected, "I'd be mad if someone called you Toucan Sam. C'mon." It all happens in the clip below from 8:40 mins.

Symone has since taken to Twitter to try explain her comments -- and quell the mounting backlash. "Some comments are rude, some are disrespectful, and some are racist. Try to not exchange one for the other," she tweeted. She followed up with: "My opinion/comments arn't based off race, that doesn't mean i'm trying to be a different race all together. I love OUR history, family...." She sounded off with "We have Irish Culture, African Culture, Asian Culture, Indian Culture Many more running through the veins of AMERICA! Come on yung peeps." 

Watch: Raven-Symoné stuns Whoopi Goldberg with racial remarks

Raven-Symoné left co-host Whoopi Goldberg speechless Friday on "The View" as she admitted she wouldn't hire someone with a "ghetto black name."

The "View" hosts discussed a study that found Americans make racist assumptions based on names, which was followed by a YouTube video in which kids shared "ghetto black names."

"Just to bring it back, can we take back 'racist' and say 'discriminatory,' because I think that's a better word," Raven-Symoné started off.

Goldberg nodded in agreement. "It's a much better word."

If only Raven-Symoné had stopped there.

The former Disney star quickly added, "And I am very discriminatory against words like the ones they were saying in those names. I'm not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea. It's just not going to happen. I'm not going to hire you."

Actress Raven-Symone attends TrevorLIVE New York to benefit The Trevor Project at the Marriott Marquis on Monday, June 15, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Goldberg looked stunned. She put her hands on her chest and looked away.

We feel for you, Whoopi. It's rather hard to believe a woman named after a bird would admit to name discrimination. And plenty of Twitter users skewered Raven-Symoné for her comment.

YouTube personality and comedian Kingsley chimed in with one of the most favorited tweets: "How is Raven-Symoné against 'ghetto' names when she has lived 29 years with an accent mark that is never utilized? :-/"

Ann Tatko-Peterson provides celebrity commentary for the Bay Area News Group. Follow her at twitter.com/atatkopeterson.