This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s longest running column! Every Friday, Aly Gibbs digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
If you are at all keyed in with the Bluesky transgenders (or, dare I dream, a Bluesky transgender yourself?), you’re surely aware of the latest vote blue no matter who upheaval.
If, however, you’re the kind of well adjusted sicko that spent the week breathing fresh air and spending time with the people you love, doing things you enjoy, you might be wondering: Why’s everybody so mad at the Democratic nominee for a United States Senate seat in Texas, James Talarico?
I shared my (less than hopeful) thoughts about Talarico back in May. Talarico gained popularity early as a liberal choice in a deeply red state, generating controversy by describing his Christian g*d as nonbinary and explicitly stating that transgender Americans were not to blame for the abysmal state of American society.
“The only thing the media wants to ask me about are trans athletes. What I would say is that the only minority destroying this country is the billionaires,” Talarico declared in a March 9 interview on MS NOW. “We are all focused on the wrong 1%. Trans people aren’t taking away our healthcare. Undocumented people aren’t defunding our schools… It’s the billionaires and their puppet politicians. And so we need not only the media, but all of us, to focus on the real problem at hand.”
Promising stuff!
We all hoped he’d keep up that kind of rhetoric after he won the primaries, particularly since his opponent in the primaries was U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett, who has been significantly more outspoken about the rights of trans Americans. In my humble opinion, Talarico winning against Crockett is less an indication that he was the superior candidate, and more about his being a loudly religious cisgender white man and her being a Black woman.
No such luck, I’m afraid! Speaking to Fox News’ Brooke Taylor on Wednesday, Talarico agreed that there are only two sexes: man and woman. This is, like I said back in May, an explicit capitulation to the White House’s current stance that trans Americans do not, or perhaps should not, exist.
Taylor asks, “Would you vote in favor of a national ban for transgender surgeries when it comes to minors?”
“Absolutely,” Talarico answers enthusiastically. “In fact, in the legislature, I voted for an amendment that would have restricted [TX SB14, which banned puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors] to a ban on surgeries for minors… The bill was overly broad… I voted for a major amendment to limit the bill to banning surgeries for minors. I’ve been consistent on this issue.”
Folks, it’s the bottom of the ninth and the bases are loaded. Taylor tees up for Talarico and asks, “What about biological men competing in women’s sports? That’s a big deal here in Texas.”
Talarico’s answer?
“I oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it endangers safety or fairness. Every sport has to be safe and fair. As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes, I care a lot about our students, so I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness.”
Is that a home run? Is that a strikeout? I guess it depends on whether or not you believe James Talarico is actually the Democratic nominee for Texas in the U.S. Senate, and not the dark horse candidate hoping to somehow supplant Ken Paxton as the Republican nominee before the midterms.
Let me be clear: I fucking hate this loser and I’m glad he isn’t running for a seat in my state.
More than that, I’m absolutely sick to death of having to qualify that statement. In every thread on Bluesky admonishing Talarico’s disgusting, garbage opinions, some feckless centrist bumbles in and asks, “Do you think Paxton should win? Do you think Paxton supports trans athletes? Do you think Paxton would be good for trans Texans?”
No, no and no. I wasn’t born yesterday, thank you very much, but Paxton isn’t part of this equation. Talarico is a grown man who can express whatever beliefs he holds close to his heart, and the beliefs he chose to express are loaded statements that presuppose trans athletes may be hazardous to the health of real girls.
Talarico’s verbiage is unbearably telling. He refers to trans athletes and girls. He does not mention trans boys or men. He does not clarify that trans girls are girls, even if they are not cis girls. As far as I’m concerned, James Talarico’s choice of words makes it clear that he does not separate trans girls and women from cis boys and men in his mind, and this means that he is not fit to pursue a political position as a progressive candidate.
If Talarico’s cowardly pivot away from supporting trans Americans’ unquestionable right to exist in society ruins his campaign, and ushers in a new era of evil under the auspices of Ken Paxton, that is his own goddamn fault. It won’t be the fault of trans Texans, who comprise less than 1% of that state’s total adult population.
And it won’t be the fault of trans people venting on social media because we are so, so, so tired of being thrown under the bus by faux-liberal politicos, and being told that our civil liberties simply must be sacrificed to ensure that good candidates can win elections, when time and time again we have astutely guessed that those candidates are not good, and they will not win their elections by selling us out.
So if you’re considering chastising a trans person for being disappointed in James Talarico, kindly shut the hell up.
