TV host backtracks on gender comment
Mario Lopez apologized Wednesday for telling conservative commentator Candace Owens that it’s “dangerous” and “alarming” for parents to honour the wishes of young children who identify with a gender other than the one assigned at birth.
The longtime Extra host, who was recently named a host of Access Hollywood, said in a statement released by his publicist that his remarks were “ignorant and insensitive.” Lopez said the backlash has brought on a “deeper understanding” of how “hurtful” his remarks were. He outraged many when he told Owens on her PragerU YouTube show that, like Owens, he is “blown away” when parents tolerate very young children who make gender determinations at such an age.
Lopez didn’t go as far as Owens, who brought up what she called a “weird trend” in Hollywood, children “picking their gender,” and called it a “really scary trend.”
Lopez said he wouldn’t tell anyone how to parent their kids, “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 that determination then, OK, then you’re going to be a boy or a girl … It’s sort of alarming.”
The quote was widely criticized on social media. The Human Rights Campaign called it “dangerous to the safety and well-being of LGBTQ youth, especially trans children who deserve to be loved and accepted for who they are.”