Talarico voted against protecting parents who refuse to affirm a child’s gender identity

The Texas Democrat now backs a ban on gender-transition surgery for minors. His votes in the Texas House show steady opposition to restrictions involving transgender children, including a 2025 law protecting parents.

By EEW Magazine Online News Editors

FILE - Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, poses for a portrait at his campaign headquarters in Austin, Texas, after launching his campaign, Sept. 9, 2025. (Callaghan O’Hare/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

James Talarico voted in May 2025 against a Texas law that shields parents from child abuse and neglect findings when they refuse to affirm a child’s gender identity. It was his most recent vote on transgender children in a legislative record that dates to 2019. Talarico is now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

He says he supports a national ban on gender-transition surgery for minors and would restrict transgender athletes in girls’ sports when safety or fairness is at risk. His recorded votes in the Texas House show consistent opposition to restrictions on transgender children from 2019 through 2025.

House Bill 1106 amends the Texas Family Code to state that a parent’s or caregiver’s refusal to affirm a child’s perceived gender identity or expressed sexual orientation does not, by itself, constitute abuse or neglect. The protection expressly covers refusing to use a child’s preferred name or pronouns, even when the child’s name has been legally changed. The House passed the bill 85-59 on May 14, 2025, with two members present but not voting. The House Journal lists Talarico among the 59 opponents in Record Vote 2458.

FILE - Texas state Rep. James Talarico walks outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in El Paso, Texas, during a stop on his “Take Back Texas” tour, Feb. 21, 2026. (Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)

Supporters said parents should not face abuse allegations for declining to affirm a child’s gender identity. Opponents said the law could keep authorities from intervening when a parent’s conduct causes serious emotional harm. Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, offered an amendment to preserve an abuse or neglect finding when such a refusal caused severe mental or emotional harm, then withdrew it. Equality Texas, which opposed the bill, argued its protections also extend to parents who withhold gender-affirming care. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the measure June 20, 2025, and it took effect Sept. 1.

The vote returned Talarico to a question he had argued six years earlier. In 2019, House Bill 1910 would have barred courts deciding custody from considering whether a parent acknowledged or declined to acknowledge a child’s gender identity. It also would have excluded that conduct from the statutory definition of child abuse. Talarico opposed the bill at a committee hearing.

“I think there are some folks that would think that if you deny your child’s gender identity that that’s incredibly harmful,” he said. “And whether or not we label it with the term abuse, it’s abusive for sure.”

He said excluding such conduct from the definition of abuse was “dangerous and could certainly harm some of our most vulnerable kids in the state.” At the same hearing, a representative of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services testified that affirming or denying a child’s gender identity, standing alone, would not be grounds for an abuse finding, though it could be weighed with other circumstances. The bill died in committee without a floor vote.

A transgender pride flag flies against a blue sky. (Credit: Dmitry Rukhlenko)

In 2023, Talarico voted against Senate Bill 14, which bars physicians from providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery to change the sex characteristics of patients younger than 18, with exceptions for certain medical conditions. The House passed the bill 87-56 on May 15, 2023, according to Record Vote 1688.

Days earlier, Talarico wrote Amendment 11, which would have exempted physicians and health care providers from the bill’s prohibitions “to the extent” complying with them conflicted with the Hippocratic oath. The amendment did not define a conflict and applied to every treatment the bill restricted, including surgery. The House rejected it 56-82 in Record Vote 1677. Talarico also voted for an amendment by Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, that would have limited the ban to surgery and left puberty blockers and hormone treatments legal for minors. It failed 56-80.

In a June 2026 podcast interview, Talarico said he opposes gender-reassignment surgery for minors. On Sept. 9, he told Fox News he would support a national ban. Asked about SB 14, he called the bill overly broad and cited his vote for the surgery-only amendment. The record confirms that vote. It also shows he wrote the Hippocratic oath exception, which contained no carve-out for surgery.

Some Republican advertising has misstated the record. One ad claimed Talarico supported using taxpayer dollars for gender-transition surgery on young children. PolitiFact rated the claim false, finding he cast no vote to fund such procedures.

On Oct. 14, 2021, Talarico voted against House Bill 25, which requires public school athletes to compete on teams matching their biological sex. The Texas Tribune reported that he had described Republican efforts to restrict transgender athletes as a manufactured controversy. At a 2021 hearing on the issue, he described six chromosomal combinations as six biological sexes.

In September, Talarico told Fox News he would oppose transgender athletes in girls’ sports when their participation threatens safety or fairness. He called his six-sexes remark a mistake and said there are two sexes. He said his earlier opposition stemmed from the breadth of the Republican bill and that he favors local decisions that distinguish between individual and team sports. Equality Texas CEO Brad Pritchett expressed disappointment with the shift.

Responding to renewed attention on his 2019 remarks, Talarico’s campaign said he “believes parents have the most important say in decisions about their children” and pointed to a parental rights bill he sponsored. The statement, as reported by Fox News, did not address his vote on HB 1106.

Texans choose between Talarico and Paxton on Nov. 3.