State Rep. James Talarico, the newly minted Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, claimed in 2021 that there were “six really common biological sexes” — not two.
Talarico made the declaration during a debate in the Texas State Legislature over a measure sponsored by GOP state Rep. Cole Hefner to ban biological men who identify as transgender from participating in female sports in K-12 schools.
“The bill seems to think there are two,” said Talarico, who has a master’s of education from Harvard University. “The one thing I want us to all be aware of, recognize, is that modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six, which honestly, Rep. Hefner surprised me, too.”
Talarico claimed there are “six really common biological sexes” based on X and Y chromosomes.
“The point is that, biologically speaking, scientifically speaking, sex is a spectrum, and oftentimes can be very ambiguous,” Talarico said.
Talarico got pushback during the hearing from Beth Stelzer, the president of Save Women’s Sports, who was testifying in favor of the bill. Stelzer argued that studies have proven “the male advantage is immutable [in sports], and there are in fact two sexes. They are dimorphic: XX, XY.”
“The other quote ‘sexes’ mentioned are disorders of sexual development that are variants of XX or XY chromosomes,” Stelzer said. “They are still disorders of male or female.”
Talarico on Tuesday bested Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) for the Democratic nomination for the Senate held by incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). On the Republican side, Cornyn advanced to a runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after neither candidate received more than 50% in the primary.
Even though Republicans have not yet settled on their candidate, the party is wasting no time in getting to work trying to define Talarico for general election voters.
“Can’t wait to hear the Democratic Party’s newest star explain the other four to the voters in Texas,” said Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) in an X post sharing a video of Talarico’s remarks.
J.T. Ennis, a spokesman for the Talarico campaign, told the Washington Examiner that Republicans were focused “stale attacks,” while the Democratic nominee was focused on building a coalition that could win in November.
“John Cornyn, Ken Paxton and the billionaires who prop them up are scared of James Talarico for good reason: our campaign is building a movement poised to change the politics of this state and take power back for working people,” said Ennis. “While they lob stale attacks, we are uniting the people of Texas to win in November.”
