US Senate candidate James Talarico once again faced a question this week about asserting that “God is nonbinary,” noting this time that MAGA hero Charlie Kirk said essentially the same thing.
On Wednesday, the Texas Democrat took part in a televised town hall hosted by CNN and Jubilee. During one portion of the event, Talarico, a state representative who is running against scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), invited skeptical Republican and independent voters to the stage to share their concerns about his candidacy.
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As The Advocate notes, one woman questioned Talarico about his past comments “such as ‘God is nonbinary’” and “questions about how many genders there really are.”
Both comments stem from the 2021 debate in the Texas House of Representatives over a bill that would require public school students to play on sports teams matching the sex listed on their birth certificates. In April of that year, Talarico asserted that “modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six” — a reference to intersex individuals. He also cited Genesis 1:26 when he asserted that “God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between. God is nonbinary.”
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During Wednesday’s town hall, Talarico acknowledged that Republicans have seized on those comments.
“I know that this has been used in these attack ads all over the state,” he said.
“The first comment about God not being defined by gender, when I said that I was being provocative, and I want to admit that and come clean about that,” he continued, echoing an explanation he gave during an interview with Fox News last month.
“But I think what I was saying is actually not controversial theologically, the idea that we can’t define God using human categories,” the Presbyterian seminarian added. “Not only did I say that, but the late Charlie Kirk said that. The late Pope Benedict said that. So, yes, I was doing it maybe in an annoying way. I can admit that.”
Talarico did not cite a specific instance of Kirk saying that human categories could not define God. But during a 2024 appearance on Jubilee’s Surrounded, the late Christian Nationalist said that “God the father is neither man nor woman, he is omniscient, omnipotent…”
Another voter questioned Talarico about his opposition to gender-affirming surgeries for minors. Attack ads airing in Texas have attempted to falsely paint Talarico’s vote against the state’s 2023 ban on all pediatric gender-affirming care as support for “sex change surgeries on kids.” But in a June podcast interview, Talarico said he opposes “gender reassignment surgeries for minors,” describing Republican ads that say otherwise as attempts to distract and divide voters.
“When it comes to kids, as a policymaker, I always have to balance two things,” Talarico said at Wednesday’s town hall, according to The Advocate. “One is protecting children and honoring the rights of parents, because I believe that parental rights are sacred, and we should trust parents to raise their kids. But if there’s something that’s going to endanger a child or a minor, certainly something that could cause permanent damage, then I’m always going to try to err on the side of protecting those kids.”
A 2024 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that gender-affirming surgeries are rarely performed on minors in the US, and those that are are generally limited to top surgeries for older teens. Cisgender boys get breast reduction surgery much more often than trans minors.
Talarico went on to explain that he voted against the 2023 bill because it “would go after all kinds of different forms of health care, not just gender reassignment surgeries.”
“I actually supported an amendment to that bill to limit the legislation to just banning surgeries for those under the age of 18,” he said.
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