Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, running for a seat in the U.S. Senate as the Trump-backed Republican against Democrat James Talarico, unearthed yet another damning video of his woke opponent and shared it to his social media. In the latest clip, Talarico can be seen and heard defending the idea of affirming minors’ ‘gender identity’ to the point that parents who didn’t should be considered ‘abusive’ and lose potential custody of their kids.
In an undated hearing, James Talarico appears with the Committee on Juvenile Justice And Family Issues speaking to the proposed language changes to Texas law concerning the notion of gender identity and potential harm to kids. Talarico suggested denying gender-affirming support to your own child was tantamount to being ‘harmful’ and ‘abusive.’
“I think there are some folks, and that would think that if you deny your child’s gender identity, that that’s incredibly harmful. And whether or not we can label it with the term abuse, I mean it’s abusive for sure. And so that’s where I think some of us have concerns. And I don’t want to speak for the members,” he said before another colleague interjected with a clarifying question.
“Yeah, that that it well should it say, are you suggesting it ought to say that it should include a person’s willingness or unwillingness to acknowledge a child’s gender, or should it be silent as to whether that is abuse, whether it needs it at all?” the unidentified member asked of the now-Senate candidate.
Responding, Talarico reiterated that he wanted non-affirming parents’ behavior in not going along with their child’s self-reported gender identity to be labeled a certain way. “My, just, concern is ruling it out as not being abuse. I think is dangerous and could certainly harm some of our most vulnerable kids in the state,” he said.
“This is absolutely DISGUSTING,” Paxton wrote on his X account with a clip of the video. “James Talarico said parents who don’t transition their kids are “abusive” and thinks they should have their kids taken from them.” Watch the video that sparked Paxton’s outrage below:
Under Texas law, law enforcement has two options to protect children from codified dangers. The first option is removing the abusive parent or alleged abuser from the home and keep the child there, assuming the remaining adults or caretakers and the home remain safe. The second option is removing the child from the dangerous setting.
With regard to the latter, child protective services can only remove a child from their home if an ‘immediate danger’ requires it. In extreme situations, a child can be removed even without a court order and no time exists to acquire one. In that case, by law an emergency hearing must be held on the next business day, although that also means an entire weekend could pass before setting things straight.
As it pertains to the law and Talarico’s statements, what is being suggested is that children living in homes whose parents do not affirm their so-called ‘gender identity’ would be harming and abusing kids, and under the language of the law being drafted could be either enough to have them removed or have their own child removed, possibly without even a judge signing off.
Featured image: Screen shot from embedded video