Jennifer Flavin Stallone, the wife of Oscar-nominated actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone, has shared her thoughts on why some of her fellow Hollywood parents have transgender children.
In a bizarre talking point on The Katie Miller Podcast, hosted by Republican political adviser and Donald Trump’s former deputy press secretary Katie Miller, Stallone suggested that celebrity parents are more likely to have transgender children as their home lives lack “structure”.
During the conversation, released on 20 October, Miller quizzed Stallone on why “so many” children of celebrity parents are trans.
“Is there something in the water in Hollywood?” Miller asked, to which Stallone theorised that “Hollywood is all about expression”.
“However you want to express yourself… If you feel like a cat today, you’re a cat,” Flavin said, referencing a debunked and ridiculous right-wing hoax about litter trays being put in school bathrooms for children who identify as animals.
“And it’s so loosey-goosey,” Stallone continued. “I don’t think we’re really understanding that these kids are not our accessories. They’re little human beings that need structure. And structure is really important for them because it helps their brain organise everything.”
Stallone, a former model and cosmetics brand owner who married the Rocky actor in 1997, went on to suggest, without evidence, that children who grow up in Hollywood homes might be more likely to be trans as they find the celebrity lifestyle “confusing”.
“I think growing up in a Hollywood home, there’s really no structure because you have this thing going, and you’ve got private planes. And you’ve got all these giant homes with chefs and secretaries and assistants and, you know, housekeepers and nannies,” she said.
“And there’s just too much of everything. It gets really confusing for a little person.”
She continued by stating that celebrity parents should use “good common sense” when raising their children, and suggested that some children of famous parents might be being pressured into identifying as trans.
“It’s OK what you decide to be as an adult. But raise them just with good common sense,” she said.
“I mean, my daughters were tomboys. They preferred to wear pants than dresses, you know. And they loved sports. But I never said, ‘Oh, you’re a boy now.’ I just said, ‘You love to play sports, you love to hang out with boys, that’s awesome.’”
While a number of celebrities including Robert De Niro, Gabrielle Union, Mel B, and Jamie Lee Curtis are parents of transgender children, there is no evidence to suggest that being a child of a famous parent makes someone more likely to identify as trans.
After Miller posted a clip of Stallone’s views on her Instagram page, those in the comment section let her know as such.
“Sad hearing this,” wrote one person. “I know if Jen and [Sylvester] had a gay or trans kid they would 100% support them. Sorry to say but living in Hollywood, Alabama etc does not make you trans.”
“It’s always best to keep your opinion to yourself when you don’t know what you’re talking about,” a second wrote.
A third questioned: “Did she actually think there was some logic in what she said?”
To insinuate that some children who would otherwise identify as cisgender are being pressured into identifying as trans ignores mounting evidence that shows very low rates of regret after someone transitions. A 2019 survey, for example, found that less than 0.5 per cent of 3,398 people who had accessed gender-affirming healthcare experienced transition-related regret.
The notion that being transgender is an increasingly common phenomena among younger generations – dubbed “trans social contagion theory” – has also been debunked.
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