Mario Lopez Says It's 'Dangerous' To Allow Trans Children To Be Themselves
Mario Lopez is saying some dangerously ignorant things about raising trans kids
Mario Lopez is under fire online for comments he made in a June interview, when he criticized parents who raise kids according to the gender identities the kids themselves choose, calling it “weird” and “dangerous.”
“A lot of weird trends come out of Hollywood and one of the weirder ones, for me, is this new trend where celebrities are coming out — and I know Charlize Theron did this a few weeks ago — is saying that their child is picking their gender,” Lopez said. “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 …”
He was referring to a recent interview Theron gave in which she said her 7-year-old child, Jackson, told her at three years old that they were not a boy, opening her eyes to gender fluidity in a new way.
Lopez 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 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.”
Oof.
People on Twitter have been reacting pretty harshly, and for good reason, because this is a load of trash.
Not so shockingly, though, some ignorant people actually agree with Lopez on this, apparently not realizing they are actually endangering children by holding these backward views.
Here’s what research and credible experts have to say about this: It’s not at all “dangerous” to raise your child according to the gender they express. What is actually dangerous is forcing your child to live within gender boundaries that are not comfortable to them. Trans kids (and adults) are especially prone to bullying and mental illness because of the stigma that’s still attached to being LGBTQ+ in our society. A recent study showed more than half of trans boys have attempted suicide at some point in their lives, while 29.9 percent of trans girls and 41.8 percent of nonbinary youth have attempted to take their own lives. Studies also show that it may take only one accepting adult in an LGBTQ kid’s life to save them, so Mario Lopez, pay attention. These kids need your support, not your ignorance.
