Queer Eye‘s Karamo Brown is offering to educate Mario Lopez after the Extra host’s comments about parents allowing their children to explore their gender identity were broadly condemned as harmful and transphobic.
Following Lopez’s comments from a June interview on The Candace Owens Show in which he called allowing a child to express their preferred gender identity “dangerous” resurfacing earlier this week, the Netflix series’ culture expert took to Twitter to address the false ideas being spread.
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Saying he was “disappointed” to read Lopez’s comments, Brown drew on his training as a social worker to reassure that “healthy and safe dialogue” with kids is not “abusive, neglectful or ‘dangerous.’”
That being said, Brown told his followers the Saved By the Bell star shouldn’t be “canceled,” but instead should be given “the opportunity to learn why his comments are harmful to trans youth and their parents.”
I don’t think @MarioLopezExtra should be ‘canceled’. But I do believe he should be given the opportunity to learn why his comments are harmful to trans youth and their parents. Mario, I’m ready to talk when you are.
— Karamo Brown (@Karamo) July 31, 2019
“Mario, I’m ready to talk when you are,” he ended his message.
Lopez initially was criticized when weighing in on what Owens called the “weird trend” of celebrities such as Charlize Theron allowing their child to self-identify their gender.
“I am trying to understand it myself, and please don’t lump me into that whole [group],” Lopez responded. “I’m kind of blown away too.”
“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,” he continued. “It’s sort of alarming and my gosh, I just think about the repercussions later on.”
He continued, “When you’re a kid… you don’t know anything about sexuality yet. You’re just a kid.”
“Parents need to allow their kids to be kids, but at the same time you gotta be the adult in the situation,” he added. “Pause with that… I think the formative years is when you start having those discussions and really start making these declarations… personally I just think it’s way too young.”
Photo credit: Santiago Felipe/Getty Images
