Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico expressed an openness to banning sex-change procedures for minors and restricting trans-identifying male athletes from competing in women’s sports in some cases, while walking back his previous comments that there are more than two sexes. The Texas House of Representatives member running for U.S. Senate in Texas spoke with Fox News this week at a food drive campaign event in Dallas.
During the interview, Talarico responded, “Absolutely,” when asked if he would vote in favor of a national ban on sex-change surgeries for minors. Talarico said that he has been “consistent on this issue,” claiming that his opposition to measures like Senate Bill 14 (SB 14) in 2023 is because he believed it was “overly broad." The bill, signed by Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott in June 2023, prohibits physicians and licensed healthcare professionals from providing puberty blockers, hormones and sex-change surgeries to minors. SB 14 later went into effect in September 2023 after legal challenges temporarily delayed enforcement. Democratic representatives, including Talarico, proposed 18 amendments to alter or narrow the legislation, all of which ultimately failed. "If you go back and check, I voted for a major amendment to limit the bill to banning surgeries for minors," Talarico said.
"As a lawmaker, my job is to try to sift through everything the bill does. And sometimes there's stuff in it that's really harmful, and I have no choice but to oppose the bill as a whole." "It's why I try to use amendments to narrow the focus of the bill so that it does exactly what we intend it to do," he continued.
"It's what I tried to do with that piece of legislation, and unfortunately, the amendment I supported was unsuccessful."