Republicans opposed to the Senate campaign of Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) have repeatedly criticized him for allegedly saying that there are “six genders.” The attacks over this and his other comments on gender have inspired Republicans to attack his masculinity and to paint him as “extreme,” “radical,” a “freak,” and out of touch with Texas voters. Talarico’s opponent, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, has been calling him ” six-gender Jimmy.”
Even Donald Trump has brought up the comment, saying that Talarico has “got six Genders” in a post on Truth Social several weeks after Talarico won his primary election.
LGBTQ Nation evaluated the claim for its truthfulness.
James Talarico said that there are u0022six gendersu0022
Rates this claim:
Talarico said that there are six sexes, referring to intersex chromosome variations, not that there are six genders. But it is true that he was arguing that sex and gender are not a binary.
The background of James Talarico’s “six genders” comment
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During an April 2021 committee debate over a bill that would require public school students to play on sports teams matching the sex listed on their birth certificates, Talarico asked the bill’s author, state Rep. Cole Hefner (R), how intersex children might figure into the bill’s assumption of a male-female sexual binary.
“Modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes — in fact, there are six, which, honestly, Representative Hefner, surprised me, too,” Talarico said, before listing several intersexual chromosomal variations. “The point is that biologically speaking, scientifically speaking, sex is a spectrum and oftentimes it can be very ambiguous.”
Talarico’s pushback wasn’t surprising considering his past support for trans civil rights, including for young people’s rights to obtain gender-affirming medical care and to attend supportive schools, as well as his opposition to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
Is Talarico’s comment correct? Are there really just six?
While Talarico listed off six chromosomal variations for intersex individuals, there is no single exact count for intersex chromosome variations. In fact, medical and advocacy groups document over 30 to 40 distinct intersex variations overall, and he’s absolutely correct that Republican anti-trans legislation has ignored these variations in order to reinforce a strict binary that excludes anyone who falls outside of “traditional” gender variance.
To be clear, while many people self-identify as either cisgender male or female, there is no single fixed number of genders, as major health, psychological, and sociological organizations view gender as a wide spectrum rather than a strict count.
A September 2025 article in the Archives of Sexual Behavior says, “People with variable sex characteristics (VSC)/intersex exist in bodies that are not exclusively male or female, and the large diversity of physical characteristics within the group further shows how binary sex does not accurately describe human heterogeneity.”
The article continues, saying that the number of genders depends on personal, medical, and societal factors that may not be widely accepted or understood by people who are more accustomed to the male-female sexual binary.
How have Republicans responded to James Talarico’s six genders comment? And how has Talarico responded?
Republicans like Trump and GOP legislators in Talarico’s home state have completely disavowed the entire concept of gender as a “mental illness” and form of “gender ideology” that seeks to “indoctrinate” and “trans” kids into adopting identities that fall outside of the gender binary.
A January 2025 executive order, signed on his first day of Trump’s second term in office, declared a male-female binary as official U.S. government policy, directing all federal agencies to stop issuing trans- and nonbinary-related gender marker changes on official government documents.
Talarico’s main political opponent, anti-LGBTQ+ state Attorney General Ken Paxton, cited Talarico’s “six genders” comment and his other remarks on gender (including Talarico’s comment that God is nonbinary) as a basis of his insulting nicknames for Talarico, including “Six-gender Jimmy,” “Low T Talarico,” and “James Tala-freako.”
In a May 27 NBC News interview, Talarico said, “I’ll be the first to admit that I missed the mark on some of those old statements, but what Ken Paxton is doing is clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.”
“Ken Paxton has a criminal record; I have a legislative record,” Talarico continued, referring to a a felony securities fraud case which avoided trial after Paxton successfully completed a pretrial diversion program that required him to perform community service, undergo legal ethics training, and pay approximately $300,000 in restitution.
Conclusion: Republicans are distorting Talarico’s “six gender” comment
LGBTQ Nation rates this claim as half-true – Talarico said there are six sexes, not genders, and that distinction is important since he was talking about intersex people, not transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people.
On the other hand, he was making the argument in order to fight against a trans sports ban, and ultimately his point was that gender and sex are not a neat binary like conservatives say they are, which is why conservatives are criticizing him for the statement now.
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