This past April, actress Charlize Theron confessed that she began treating her seven-year-old adopted son like a girl at the age of three, when he allegedly told her: “I am not a boy.” Now, “Access Hollywood” host Mario Lopez is taking heat on social media for calling Theron’s decision “dangerous.”
According to Pop Culture, Mario Lopez made his comments during an appearance on “The Candace Owens Show” last month, where the two discussed the “weird trend” in Hollywood wherein celebrities are “transitioning” their children at young ages.
“My God, if you’re three years old, I just think it’s dangerous as a parent to make this determination then,” Lopez said on the show. “It’s sort of alarming and my gosh, I just think about the repercussions later on.”
Lopez said that parents need to “be the adult in the situation” when their children do what children usually do: Say confusing things about their own identity.
Charlize Theron told the Daily Mail in April that she has “two beautiful daughters” and defined parenting as simply celebrating her children as they wish to be, rather than as serving as a guide to help direct children.
“I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive,” Theron said at the time. “They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide.”
“My job as a parent is to celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be,” she continued. “And I will do everything in my power for my kids to have that right and to be protected within that.”
In 2014, LGBT enthusiasts hailed Angelina Jolie and her now-ex-husband Brad Pitt as “heroes” for treating their five-year-old daughter, Shiloh Jolie Pitt, as a boy after she insisted they see her as such. According to various leftist sites, including The Advocate, the now-divorced couple reportedly supported their eight-year-old daughter Shiloh’s choice to both wear suits and be referred to as “John.”
As far back as 2008, when Shiloh was two years old, Brad Pitt told Oprah that his daughter insisted on being called “John.” His words were echoed in 2010, when Angelina Jolie told Vanity Fair: “[Shiloh] wants to be a boy, so we had to cut her hair. She likes to wear boys’ everything. She thinks she’s one of the brothers.”
The Telegraph later used Shiloh’s story as a vehicle to help spread highly dubious child psychology, advising parents to “allow their child to go through a normal human experience exploring their own identity at their own pace and on their own terms.”
Needless to say, Mario Lopez has been taking considerable flak on social media for daring to call out this demonstrably “dangerous” form of parenting.
“I’m glad things are coming out into the open … so I know who to never eff with again — like [Mario Lopez] thinking he knows ANYTHING and going on a prejudiced show with an idiot host and criticizing another parent on their child transitioning. Gross. What gives you the right?” said one Twitter user.
“Mario Lopez is canceled, just for appearing on her show let alone what he actually said …” said another user.
“Mario Lopez should mind his business and worry about his own children. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, even wrong ones. But criticizing someone’s parenting publicly crosses a line. If a child isn’t being abused, observe quietly,” said another.
Mario Lopez has described himself as a Catholic and even renewed his Baptismal promise in the Jordan River while visiting Israel in 2018.