Mario Lopez Apologizes After Backlash Over Transphobic Comments

Television host and actor Mario Lopez faced backlash over his controversial comments that said it’s “dangerous” for parents to support their transgender children in a 40-minute interview with Candace Owens back in June. The interview garnered attention recently for all the wrong reasons.

On Wednesday, Lopez apologized and said that his statements were “ignorant and insensitive,” pointing out that he now has a “deeper understanding” of how hurtful and damaging his comments were.

Lopez explained that he has always been an “ardent supporter” of the LGBTQ community and that he is going to use this opportunity to educate himself more on the matter. He further stated that he will be more informed and thoughtful.

"That’s nice that Mario Lopez apologized. So many people would not have," a Twitter user said in response to his apology. "I like him more before cause of it. Life is a learning experience we can all learn from watching a man apologize and the subject matter coming to light to the eye."

In the controversial interview, Owens stated that it’s hard for her to process “this new trend” where celebrities are letting their children pick their gender.

“The things that come out of children’s mouths, they are just, they say whatever in the moment,” Owens continued. “You don’t know what they’ve seen on TV, what got in their head, and I’ve heard children say they were mermaids, I’ve had children say they could fly and jump off of a staircase and thank God I caught him, right, because he thought he could be Superman.”

She further explained that she’s just trying to understand this “new Hollywood mentality” where parents think that their children have the “mental authority” to choose their gender.

The “Saved by The Bell” actor told Owens that he’s trying to understand it himself. He explained that he isn’t one to tell anyone how to parent their children and if a person came from a place of love “you really can’t go wrong.”

“…if you’re three years old and you’re saying that you’re feeling a certain way or you think you’re a boy or girl, whatever the case may be, I think it’s just dangerous as a parent to make that determination,” Lopez continued. He then stated that it’s alarming and pointed out the “repercussions” later on.

“When you’re a kid ... you don’t know anything about sexuality yet. You’re just a kid,” Lopez stated.

After the interview, Lopez received a lot of public backlash.

One Twitter user said that the first mistake he made was to go on “The Candace Owens Show.”

GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy organization, sent out a tweet that said that medical and psychological experts as well as parents of children who are transgender “have long since discredited the ideas” that Lopez shared.

“The real dangerous action is when someone with a public platform uses bad science to speak against a vulnerable group of children,” the tweet continued.

LGBTQ Nation said that psychological experts have said that a child can only be understood or determined as transgender when their “trans identity is ‘insistent, consistent and persistent.’”

“No medical or mental health expert would immediately declare a child as trans after they said, “I’m a girl/boy,” once.” LGBTQ Nation added.