In 2021, while sitting on a Texas House committee, James Talarico opposed bills that would keep biological males out of girls’ sports. He called the proposals an attempt to police people’s private parts. He compared arguments about genetic advantage and safety to the old justifications used to keep Black athletes out of professional leagues.
Then he said the line that is now circulating again: some things are more important than perfectly fair competition in sports.
That was the recorded position. The video still exists. The transcript still exists. Talarico is now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas. On the campaign trail he has adjusted the message. He tells interviewers that every sport has to be safe and fair and that he will oppose males in girls’ sports if it risks either one.
Upgrade your subscription now to get 50% off for a year.
The gap between the two statements is not subtle. One version treats fairness as secondary. The other treats fairness as the standard.
Voters who watched female athletes lose scholarships, podium spots, and locker-room privacy over the last several years can read the earlier quote for themselves. The later quote arrives after the political cost of the first one became clear.
If the principle only becomes important once the candidate needs statewide votes, which version is the actual one?
Deskooled exists for the parts of education and public life that still treat biological reality as non-negotiable. Female sports categories were created because average male performance advantages are large and well documented. Pretending those advantages disappear when the athlete identifies differently was always a political choice, not a scientific one.
Schools that adopted the policy did so under pressure from activist organizations and state education bureaucracies. The results showed up on the field and in the records.
Talarico’s 2021 statement made the priority explicit. Fairness could be set aside. The 2026 version does not erase the earlier one. It only shows that the candidate understands which answer polls better in Texas.
Parents and athletes who want the original rule restored can treat the video as the primary source.
Upgrade your subscription now to get 50% off for a year.
