ABOVE: Mario Lopez. (Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons)
Mario Lopez has apologized for the controversial comments he made regarding transgender children while appearing on the conservative PragerU video series “The Candace Owens Show.”
Owens asked Lopez about the “weird trend” of celebrities, such as Charlize Theron, whose children are “picking their gender.” Theron has been open about her 7-year-old child Jackson who told her at age 3, “I am not a boy.”
“And this is strange to me, and 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 says.
Owens also compares transgender children voicing their gender identity to when she went through a tomboy phase as a child.
Lopez agreed and called parents who affirm their child’s gender identity “dangerous.”
“I am trying to understand it myself, and please don’t lump me into that whole [group],” Lopez responded. “I’m kind of blown away too. 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 3 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, OK, 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.”
He continued: “When you’re a kid … you don’t know anything about sexuality yet. You’re just a kid.”
GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis denounced Lopez’s comments saying that he “clearly needs a primer on trans issues.”
“Medical and psychological experts, and parents of children who are transgender have long discredited the ideas that Mario Lopez shared last month,” Ellis said in a statement. “The real ‘dangerous action’ is when someone with a public platform uses bad science to speak against a marginalized and vulnerable group of children.”
Lopez has since issued an apology for the “ignorant and insensitive” remarks.
“The comments I made were ignorant and insensitive, and I now have a deeper understanding of how hurtful they were. 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,” Lopez said.
Lopez, who worked as a host on “Extra” from 2008-2019, will join “Access Hollywood” in the fall.
