Karl Lagerfeld Speaks Out Against Same Sex Marriage, Gay Parents

Karl Lagerfeld is one of the biggest names in the flamboyant fashion design industry, but the German mogul wasn’t afraid to open up about his views against same-sex marriage and gay parents raising a family.

“I’m against it (gay marriage) for a very simple reason: In the 60's, they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life,” Lagerfeld recently told contemporary youth culture magazine, Vice. “For me it’s difficult to imagine—one of the papas at work and the other at home with the baby. How would that be for the baby? I don’t know. I see more lesbians married with babies than I see boys married with babies. And I also believe more in the relationship between mother and child than in that between father and child.”

And not surprisingly, Lagerfeld’s words have hit others where it hurts.

“Absolutely (it is offensive). But that's Karl," says prominent Los Angeles stylist Phillip Bloch, whose client roster includes everyone from Halle Berry to Drew Barrymore to Mariah Carey.  "Karl is about pushing a button and that's his point of view. That's why he's an expressionist and he is a reference. It's a matter of equality, we should pay the same taxes, we should be able to get married, we should all be able to vote, be up for the same jobs, we should all be allowed to be happy and we should all be allowed to be miserable.

"[Karl] is definitely a supremacist and of course he said, "Of course I think much more about the relationship with the mother and the child as opposed to the father and the child." Well, for someone who's so creative, how could you be so single-minded? It's very single-minded but it's Karl's way of thinking. I don't think it's wrong, I think it's funny and it's cute to me that Karl thinks that way.”

But could these very bold statements hurt his standing in the industry?

“Hell no! Karl Lagerfeld is one of those designers that has done some of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and some of the most hideous things I've ever seen,” Bloch continued. “It is part of the pathos that is him and it's just great. He is him, whether it's being futuristic, or couture, whether it is boho chic, it's just him and what I think is such an important train of thought is Karl thinks very one way, he does that job and I think another. My mind is open to more choices because that's how I work and people who do different jobs, their minds work in different ways.”

And despite reaching out to numerous fashion industry big-wigs, very few were willing to comment given Lagerfeld’s hierarchy in the world of all things style and sophistication. However, Jon Barrett, Editor in Chief of The Advocate, just hopes the designer’s words will simply ignite the movement to overturn Prop 8.

“I completely respect Mr. Lagerfeld's disinterest in getting married and I hope that all of us--Karl Lagerfeld included--will soon have the legal freedom to decide whether or not to marry the person we love,” Umbach added.