Is This Lasagne Gay or What?

Did you miss Italy’s Great Gay Pasta Kerfuffle of 2013?

Here’s how it started:

Guido Barilla, who controls the fourth-generation Barilla Group family business with his two brothers, sparked outrage among activists, consumers and some politicians when he said he would not consider using a gay family to advertise Barilla pasta.

“For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the basic values of the company,” he told Italian radio on Wednesday evening. “I would not do it but not out of a lack of respect for homosexuals who have the right to do what they want without bothering others … [but] I don’t see things like they do and I think the family that we speak to is a classic family.”

Now, I fully support Barilla’s right to say stupid stuff that will alienate some customers, or maybe what he said was a smart thing that will cement his company’s relationship with a larger set of customers. His pasta company, his rules. Although my own personal preference is for pasta companies that make good pasta, not political statements.

But of course now a gay Italian lobby group is all up in arms, because, well — that’s what lobby groups do. They’re boycotting Barilla pasta, even after Guido Barilla apologized for having offended anybody.

We’ll give Ace his say on this one, because I think he nailed it:

Yes, not clapping hard enough for the sexual choices of gays constitutes “homophobia” now. “Intolerance” now means “an uncivilized lack of moist enthusiasm.”

I’ve always dreamed in living in a world where I was Free to Celebrate precisely those cult objects that the left demanded I Celebrate. I always dreamed of a world in which I was Free to be rentlessly henpecked, anklebitten, bullied & boycotted by well-funded leftist groups paid to harass citizens every waking moment of every single day.

Actually… It seems to me the question was asked for this reason: The gay lobby wants Barilla (and all other corporations) to affirmatively campaign for their political agenda. Ergo, Barilla’s statement that they won’t be doing that is now defined as “homophobia.”

I say “now” as if this is a new wrinkle. Of course it’s been going on for a quite a while.

Precisely. It’s not enough to leave people alone; you must promote their causes whether you believe in them or not, lest you get labelled a hater.

Now comes Italy’s Garofalo Pasta with an important message.

Funny, isn’t it, when a food company is just about the food?

And paying customers, of course.

ONE MORE THING: I should add a little something to stop any confusion before it starts.

Yes, I do support gay causes, including gay marriage. But what Equality Italia is trying to do with this boycott isn’t a gay cause per se. It’s the progressive cause of conform, conform, conform. It’s the same way progressives in this country use gay marriage as a convenient club for bludgeoning America’s heterodox churches into the progressive orthodoxy.

And Guido Barilla? If I were in the business of selling the most pasta to the most people, I’d keep my mouth shut and just let the ads speak for themselves.