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.
I’m not trying to be a doomsayer, but… am I the only one feeling like our Democratic overlords are simply not inspiring any faith lately?
You’ve heard about James Talarico, right? He’s a Texas state rep, and now the Democratic candidate for the upcoming U.S. Senate election in Texas. He defeated U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett in the primaries, and he’ll be facing off against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the general election later this year.
Talarico has historically been cool with LGBTQ+ people. In the past, he flipped the script on Republicans by correctly pointing out that billionaires are the American minority destroying the nation, not transgender people. As a result, guys like Ghoulish Power Behind the Throne Stephen Miller are tweeting yawn-worthy insults such as, “The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate.”
A weak snipe with all the impact of being called gay by an angry boy in an Xbox Live lobby, but one that generated an admirably Laconic response from the Democratic Party’s Twitter account to the tune of: “shut up you ugly fuck.”
Look… is it solving any problems? No, of course not. But I love a good petty snipe, and these days I’m a firm believer that decorum is off the menu. Tim Walz called these freaks “creepy and weird as hell” and it was the most motion the Harris campaign had in its four months of wretched, purposeless life. Stephen Miller, meanwhile, is a dead-eyed skeletal dweeb with no discernible skills or talents beyond unbridled racism and leering smiles who should be told to shut up at every single opportunity.
Here’s my concern: It seems like Republicans’ mockery of Talarico’s progressive positions might be working. On Wednesday, James Talarico appeared on Bari Weiss’ CBS News to speak with Ed O’Keefe about “the rotting of our systems from the inside out, the decaying of long-held values and institutions.”
Talarico speaks at length about the ways technology is dividing and harming American communities, about corruption in politics, and about Texas’ potential for liberalism. He accuses Ken Paxton of “giving Epstein-style sweetheart deals to pedophiles,” and says “the Epstein class has no place in Texas.”
As soon as Talarico starts ranting about the pedophilic criminals who comprise much of the Republican party and the presidency, O’Keefe abruptly pivots to Talarico’s pro-LGBTQ+ history. He asks why Talarico once described God as non-binary, to which the politician says he was being intentionally provocative. He goes on to say he has made statements that he regrets, that “missed the mark.”
O’Keefe brings up a 2021 statement by Talarico in which he says there are multiple sexes, and Talarico quickly clarifies that he now believes “there are two sexes, men and women,” but that there are “a very small percentage of people who have these chromosomal abnormalities.”
Hey! James! What the fuck? You really felt that, while the federal government is trying to exterminate my community, going on CBS to declare that there are only two sexes was the move? Why is James Talarico, supposed LGBTQ+ ally and potentially the first Democratic senator from Texas in decades, taking the same stance as Donald Trump?
Why are these fucking losers failing to support us even the bare minimum amount at every single turn? Why are so many of these new wave Democrats garbage-coded weirdos? Like, that guy in Maine just had a Nazi tattoo on his chest, and we’re all supposed to be cool with that because, what, he pinky swore that he had no idea what it meant? These are the standards by which we must judge our elected officials now?
I’m over it. Sure, yeah, let guys like Platner and Talarico win their races. We’ll see if they can meaningfully distinguish themselves from guys like Stephen Miller, when it comes to our safety and our right to respect. I’d like to remain hopeful, but frankly? I have my doubts.
Aly Gibbs (She/They) is a trans writer who reports on news important to the queer community.
