Talarico Dashes Away from His Record on Girls’ Sports

In 2021 the Texas legislature was debating a bill to require that participation in sports from grades K–12 follow the sex designated on students’ original birth certificates. Democratic State Representative James Talarico, now his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate, gave a short speech opposing it. A few months ago I watched it in order to write about its most controversial passage: Talarico’s statement, which he now describes as “provocative,” that God is non-binary.

To recap that speech: Talarico said that the bill was an attack on the very “humanity” of trans children; that it amounted to “endangering the lives of some of our most vulnerable children to solve a problem that doesn’t exist”; that it was “grotesque” in putting “someone’s damn trophy” ahead of even one child’s life; that it entailed “picking on kids” and “hurting children”; that it wrongly denied that “trans children are God’s children made in God’s own image”; that it further wrongly denied that “they are perfect, they are beautiful, and they are sacred”; that it was “immoral,” “a special kind of sin,” and “hateful.”

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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In 2021 the Texas legislature was debating a bill to require that participation in sports from grades K–12 follow the sex designated on students’ original birth certificates. Democratic State Representative James Talarico, now his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate, gave a short speech opposing it. A few months ago I watched it in order to write about its most controversial passage: Talarico’s statement, which he now describes as “provocative,” that God is non-binary.

To recap that speech: Talarico said that the bill was an attack on the very “humanity” of trans children; that it amounted to “endangering the lives of some of our most vulnerable children to solve a problem that doesn’t exist”; that it was “grotesque” in putting “someone’s damn trophy” ahead of even one child’s life; that it entailed “picking on kids” and “hurting children”; that it wrongly denied that “trans children are God’s children made in God’s own image”; that it further wrongly denied that “they are perfect, they are beautiful, and they are sacred”; that it was “immoral,” “a special kind of sin,” and “hateful.”