SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – TV personality Mario Lopez has apologized for comments made during a recent interview concerning parents who allow young children to determine their gender identities.

He was being interviewed on the Candace Owens Show about a Hollywood trend where parents allow their children to determine their own self-identified genders.

Owens, a conservative talk show host, asked his opinion about actress Charlize Theron letting her 3-year-old child choose to live as a girl. Theron recently revealed that her 7-year-old son Jackson does not identify as a boy. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Theron said “Yes, I thought she was a boy, too, until she looked at me when she was 3 years old and said, ‘I am not a boy!’ ”

Lopez said he’s not one to tell anyone how to parent their children. He said 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,” he said, adding that it’s kind of “alarming.”

“When you’re a kid … you don’t know anything about sexuality yet. You’re just a kid,” said the father of three.

The podcast interview was in June, but the clips have recently created a firestorm on twitter.

In an apology statement issued to CNN, Lopez said,”The comments I made were ignorant and insensitive, and I now have a deeper understanding of how hurtful they were.” The former star of “Saved by the Bell” and current host of “Extra” goes on to say,”I have been and always will be an ardent supporter of the LGBTQ community, and I am going to use this opportunity to better educate myself. Moving forward I will be more informed and thoughtful.”

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