Talarico Reverses Course, Says He Now Opposes Trans Athletes in Girls Sports

By Kayla Guo / The Texas Tribune

DALLAS, TX — Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico on Wednesday said he opposed transgender athletes competing in girls sports “if it endangers safety or fairness,” reversing course on previous positions he took while in the Texas House opposing restrictions on trans athletes.

“Every sport has to be safe and fair,” Talarico said on Fox News. “As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student-athletes, I care a lot about our students. And so I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls sports if it risks safety or fairness.”

The remark echoes what his campaign spokesperson recently said in a written statement. But it appeared to be the first time Talarico himself has explicitly come out in favor of banning transgender athletes from competing in girls sports. The platform — Fox News, with its largely conservative audience — was also notable, as Talarico has sought to win over right-leaning voters in his bid to deliver Democrats’ first statewide win in Texas since 1994. Talarico gave the interview as Republicans from across the country gathered in Dallas for a midterm convention aimed at firing up the GOP’s base ahead of November.

As a state representative, Talarico voted against GOP restrictions barring trans athletes from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. He said such proposals amounted to a push for the government to “police people’s private parts” and would harm “the least of these,” a reference to Jesus’s remarks in scripture. And he compared the justifications offered for the bans — that trans athletes had a genetic advantage and excluding them would promote safety — to rationales historically used to bar black athletes from competing in professional sports.

“Some things are more important than perfectly fair competition in sports,” Talarico said in 2021.

During the same Fox News interview Wednesday, Talarico also walked back his past statement that there are six genders, a comment he made in April 2021 during a House committee debate on a bill that would have required public school students to play on athletic teams that match the sex listed on their birth certificate. Asked by Fox News if he still believed there were six sexes, he said, “No.”

“I missed the mark on some of my past statements, I’ll be the first to admit it,” Talarico said. “What I meant is there are two sexes and there’s a small percentage of people with genetic abnormalities. Obviously I didn’t say it correctly. There are not six sexes, there are two.”

Republicans were quick to denounce Talarico’s comments Wednesday, calling them contrary to his legislative record and not to be trusted.

“James Talarico voted against TWO bills that would have prevented men from playing in women’s sports,” his opponent, Ken Paxton, posted on X in response to Talarico’s new comments. “He also called it a ‘far-right conspiracy theory.’ This is just the latest episode in James Talarico’s long saga of lies and flip-flops.”

Talarico has previously said some of his old comments “missed the mark.”

“There are some statements that I’ve made that I certainly regret,” he said on CBS earlier this year. “But Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.”

Earlier in his Senate run, Talarico said eligibility decisions related to trans athletes should be made by local school and sports officials.

Brad Pritchett, CEO of the LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group Equality Texas, said in a statement that his organization “expect[s] better” of Talarico and his campaign after the representative’s comment Wednesday. 

“When did people of moral standing decide to use Texas children as a political football?” Pritchett said. “Fairness in school sports must include trans kids. Trans kids deserve the opportunity to play sports as much as their peers.”