Mario Lopez is receiving pushback after his appearance on “The Candace Owens Show” where he said he was “blown away” by the trend to let kids pick their gender.
“When you’re a kid … you don’t know anything about sexuality yet. You’re just a kid,” Lopez told Candace Owens on June 23.
The conversation began when Owens brought up actress Charlize Theron, who told The Daily Mail a couple of months ago that she allowed her son to declare himself a girl at three years old.
“Yes, I thought she was a boy, too,” Theron told The Daily Mail. “Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said: ‘I am not a boy!” (RELATED: Democrats Denied Transgender Athletes Have Advantages In Women’s Sports. Science Says They’re Wrong)
Lopez responded by saying he did not want to tell anyone how to parent their kids, but “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.”
Lopez thinks “kids should be kids” but “you gotta be the adult in the situation.”
“I think the formative years is when you start having those discussions and really start making these declarations,” not when a child is three, he continued.
He recognized towards the end of the discussion that people have different parenting styles that he doesn’t agree with, but he believes “they’re good people, they’re coming from a good place.”
Lopez is under fire for these comments.
It’s unfortunate that someone who is so involved with @GLAAD like @MarioLopezExtra would be so misinformed about #trans kids. I wish that he would reach out to @sarahkateellis for some guidance on the difference between sex and gender identity https://t.co/JrGkfHTP2y
— Alexandra Halaby (@iskandrah) July 31, 2019
It’s okay @MarioLopezExtra. We’re here to help provide more education on what being #transgender means, the difference between #sexualorientation, #sex, and #gender… and a whole lot of other things. https://t.co/ahjYTyenMD
— PFLAG National (@PFLAG) July 31, 2019
So this hashtag #brielarsonisoverparty is so asinine bc She never said she was queer that’s something y’all made up in your mind
Bisexuality exist and it’s clear y’all hate bisexuals
Mario Lopez out here trashing parents of trans kids and this is where your focus is?!
— Valerie Complex (@ValerieComplex) July 31, 2019
Some have even called for him to lose his job.
Mario Lopez: It’s ‘dangerous’ for parents to support transgender kids – Yahoo Lifestyle And he gets to keep his stupid job as the host of whatever that damn show is #fool https://t.co/Gvvwu8CgAo
— Tatum O’neal (@Tatum_Oneal) July 31, 2019
Lopez is also under fire for saying later in the interview that #BelieveWomen is a “dangerous hashtag because people lie and sometimes those people are women.”
“God forbid you have a son out there and a girl may have felt a certain way about a situation — dismissed, hurt, whatever, and is feeling vengeful and just decides to tell a certain story that’s not even exactly true, come back and hurt that individual,” Lopez told Owens.
“And the other way around too, you can’t just believe men either,” Lopez concluded. He’s receiving pushback for these comments as well.
Mario Lopez said it’s “dangerous” for 1. parents to support their trans kids and 2. to believe women who come forward with accusations of sexual misconduct. https://t.co/lXc56B3cFH
— Alex Berg (@itsalexberg) July 31, 2019
.@MarioLopezExtra said it’s “dangerous” for parents to support their trans kids & to believe women who come forward with accusations of sexual misconduct when talking to @RealCandaceO, who previously made comments normalizing Hitler & nationalism@glaad https://t.co/Bpi42ueAhH
— Secular Students (@SecularStudents) July 31, 2019