CHAIRMAN OF WORLD'S LEADING PASTA MAKER GETS COMPANY BOYCOTTED AFTER GAY FAMILY COMMENTS

GUIDO BARILLA

Anger is boiling over at the chairman of the Barilla pasta company after he vowed to only feature heterosexual couples in commercials — and added that anyone offended by his anti-gay stance could buy a different brand of noodles.
Guido Barilla told Italian radio on Wednesday that he would never use a gay family to promote the world’s leading brand of pasta.

“For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the basic values of the company,” Barilla said. ”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.”

When asked if he was worried about a possible backlash from the gay community, he said: “Well, if they like our pasta and our message they will eat it; if they don’t like it and they don’t like what we say they will…eat another.”

His remarks immediately led Aurelio Mancuso, chairman of the gay-rights group Equality Italia, to say: “Accepting the invitation of Barilla’s owner to not eat his pasta, we are launching a boycott campaign against all his products.”