LGBT protesters have rallied outside Dolce & Gabbana’s flagship London store, calling for a boycott of the brand.

Around 60 protesters waved placards outside the New Bond Street premises in a rally jointly organised by the Out and Proud Diamond Group and the Peter Tatchell Foundation.

“We’re supporting the boycott D&G campaign and defending same-sex parents and their kids against the outrageous claim that the children are chemical and synthetic. Such ill-informed, bigoted opinions cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. Dolce and Gabbana should know better than echo the homophobia of the Vatican and Europe’s far right parties,” said Peter Tatchell.

“Their comments are not only an attack on same-sex parents but on all parents who’ve had children with the aid of fertility treatment, including thousands of heterosexual couples.”

Kato Asadhu Kayongo, a Ugandan gay man and a member of the Out and Proud Diamond Group, added: “Dolce and Gabbana’s comments are so damaging to our struggle for equality in Uganda and other countries that criminalise same-sex relationships.

“Many people adore the Dolce and Gabbana brand in these countries. Such intolerant statements undermine our struggle. They are likely to be used by anti-gay activists in Uganda and elsewhere to reinforce their homophobic stance.”

Speaking to the Italian magazine Panorama, alongside his business partner, Stefano Gabbana, Domenico Dolce said children should be born to a mother and a father: “The only family is a traditional one. I’m not convinced by those I call the chemical children, synthetic babies…They are wombs for hire, semen chosen from a catalogue … psychiatrists are not ready to confront the effects of this experimentation.”

Stefano Gabbana added: “The family is not a fad.” In 2006, he told the Daily Mail: “I am opposed to the idea of a child growing up with two gay parents.”

Both designers have in the past strongly opposed same-sex marriage.

“We hope today’s picket will inspire similar protests at D&G stores worldwide,” said Tatchell. “We want to send a message to Dolce and Gabbana, and to all homophobes everywhere, that bigotry has a price. They cannot expect to get away with disrespecting same-sex couples and their children.”