Mario Lopez has been forced to issue an apology and backtrack very quickly after controversial comments he made last month went viral just this week. The former Saved By the Bell actor and television host was a guest (for some reason) on The Candace Owens Show in June when the topic turned to how parents react when their kids express confusion over their gender. Why was Mario Lopez asked about this? We have no earthly idea. But his response has generated a significant amount of backlash. During the 40-minute interview, Owens, a conservative commentator, noted that Lopez’s son has “boyish” interests. She went on cite “a weird trend” in which some celebrities, most notably Charlize Theron, are permitting their children to choose their gender identity. ( Editor’s Note : This is not a trend by any definition of that word. Theron has said that she’s letting her adopted son live as a girl because he’s stated that is his preference … and that’s it.) “And this is strange to me,” Owens said to Lopez. “They say, ‘Oh, I looked at my child and my child was swimming in a bathtub and looked up and said, “Mommy, I’m a boy” and that’s weird.” Owens said she doesn’t think kids possess the “mental authority” to express a gender identity different than the one they were assigned at birth, a point with which Lopez basically agreed. “I’m kind of blown away, too,” replied Lopez, who recently left Extra to begin hosting Access Hollywood. He continued: “Look, I’m never one to tell anyone how to parent their kids obviously and I think if you come from a place of love, you really can’t go wrong. “But at the same time, my God, if you’re three years old and you’re saying you’re feeling a certain way or you think you’re a boy or a girl or whatever the case may be, I just think it’s dangerous as a parent to make this determination then, well, okay, then you’re going to a boy or a girl, whatever the case may be … “It’s sort of alarming and my gosh, I just think about the repercussions later on.” That last part is one reason why Lopez is now under fire. The repercussions ? Meaning what, exactly? That this boy or girl may live as a transgender individual. Is that the end of the world, Mario? Lopez, who welcomed his third child with wife Courtney Mazza this month, also Owens that his older kids don’t associate with children who are trans or gender nonbinary: “They don’t kick it with those kids.” YIKES, right? A few hours after these quotes went viral, Lopez offered up a mea culpa. “The comments I made were ignorant and insensitive, and I now have a deeper understanding of how hurtful they were,” he said, concluding as follows; “I have been and always will be an ardent supporter of the LGBTQ community, and I am going to use this opportunity to better educate myself. Moving forward I will be more informed and thoughtful.” According to a 2019 report from The Trevor Project, 1.8 percent of teenage Americans identify as transgender. More than half of transgender males under 18 report attempting suicide, while 29.9 percent of young trans women try to kill themselves. Maybe something to consider the next time celebrities make dumb, ignorant comments on the topic.
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Mario Lopez Thinks It’s "Dangerous" for Parents to Support Transgender Kids
