When asked to name something he loved other than his family or friends, the Democrat hoping to turn a Texas Senate seat blue said “trans children.”
James Talarico, a state lawmaker who won the Democrat primary in Texas last week, listed &#8220;trans children&#8221; as the “something that&#8221; he loved &#8220;that’s not family or friends” during an August 2023 podcast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CligU7twvE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appearance.</a> The clip, unearthed by The Daily Wire, highlights the radical record Talarico has attempted to downplay as he fights to win a Senate seat in a state President Donald Trump won by almost 14 points in 2024.
“I love, I&#8217;m just saying this because it&#8217;s all on my mind, the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state capitol to advocate for their humanity. They shouldn&#8217;t have to, but it was an inspiration to watch,” he said on the “A Superbloom” podcast.
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Credit: Superbloom Podcast
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Talarico, who defeated Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett in a contentious Democrat primary last week, has a history of pushing transgender ideology in the Texas state legislature and opposing legislation that would protect kids from transgender procedures. He <a href="https://journals.house.texas.gov/HJRNL/88R/PDF/88RDAY63FINAL.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted against</a> a 2023 law that protected kids from transgender surgeries and cross-sex hormone procedures.
Talarico will face either incumbent Senator John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are headed to a runoff election after a contentious Republican primary in May. Both have opposed transgender procedures on kids.
Talarico once claimed during a committee hearing that there are more than two sexes.
“The one thing I want us to all be aware of is that modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes,” he <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/04/26/texas-lawmaker-sparks-backlash-for-arguing-there-are-six-sexes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, pointing to genetic abnormalities. “In fact, there are six.”
The Republican party says the video demonstrates that Talarico is a &#8220;sick freak.&#8221;
&#8220;James Talarico is a sick freak obsessed with talking to kids about sex changes,&#8221; GOP spokesman Zach Kraft told The Daily Wire. &#8220;I am not sure which one of his six genders he &#8216;identifies&#8217; as, but he needs to keep that to himself and stay away from children.&#8221;
The Democrat lawmaker, who has attempted to center his persona around his Christian faith, has claimed that parents who don’t “affirm” their children’s gender confusion are abusive. During an April 2019 hearing, he spoke out against a bill that would clarify the definition of abuse to make sure it would punish parents who didn’t accept their child’s so-called gender identity.
Talarico <a href="https://house.texas.gov/videos/5129" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he considered “unwillingness” to “acknowledge a child&#8217;s gender identity” as “abusive” or “destructive” to the child.
“I say that because if that&#8217;s our belief, a foundational belief, then the idea of being neutral on any kind of abuse seems worrisome to us, at the very least,” he said. “ And any idea about keeping it private also seems worrisome, because abuse is not something to be kept private or to be neutral on.”
“There&#8217;s only one person who can determine a child&#8217;s gender identity, and that&#8217;s the child,” Talarico said, <a href="https://house.texas.gov/videos/5129" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claiming</a> that accepting a child’s perception of his or her gender was a “life and death issue” and that parents could be pushing their kids to commit suicide if they don’t affirm their confusion.
Talarico also <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CVD-Gi-FbWh/?hl=en&amp;img_index=3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attacked</a> Republicans for passing a bill in October 2021 keeping males out of female sports.
“Texas Republicans have passed their anti-trans bill. Over and over, Christians used scripture to justify bullying trans kids,&#8221; he said at the time. &#8220;I told them in my faith, God is non-binary.&#8221;

MixCollage-09-Mar-2026-01-04-PM-2287

WATCH: James Talarico Says He Loves ‘Trans Children’ In Unearthed Clip

2026 Midterms

Senate

Texas

Transgender

Here we go again. Minnesota’s elected officials have proven that the extreme progressives are in charge in the North Star State, beholden to the radical progressive activists who crawl out of every nook and cranny of the Twin Cities’s prestigious, white, liberal suburbs and exurbs. 
 
If you thought this was still the land of the milquetoast, “Minnesota Nice,” I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you. 
 
In the aftermath of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation that began last summer and ramped up as the White House began cracking down on widespread fraud, Minnesota has been ground zero for purity tests of the far-Left regime. Now, there’s a horse race for the Democrat Farmer Labor candidate for Minnesota’s Senate seat, after current Senator Tina Smith announced her retirement at the end of this term. 
 
The race to the Left — or the bottom, depending on which way the political winds are blowing — is between current Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig. Both women flash their “girl power” bone fides at every chance, except when they’re appealing to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walz-signed-exec-order-protecting-trans-procedures-on-minors-while-holding-hand-of-gender-confused-12-year-old">trans-affirmative activists</a> who claim sex is a social construct, or to the abortion rights radicals who endanger women’s health and applaud the death of baby girls up to the <a href="https://alphanews.org/angie-craig-voted-against-bill-to-establish-protections-for-babies-who-survive-attempted-abortions/">moment of birth</a>. 
 
The latest show of extreme views comes from Craig, who, in a <a href="https://www.startribune.com/ice-agent-surge-minnesota-protests-federal-enforcement/601591429">commentary</a> in The Minnesota Star Tribune, writes of her “regret” in voting for the Laken Riley Act, the first bill that President Donald Trump signed into law in his second term. 
 
It’s “become clear that supporting any bill that gives ICE new authority in this administration was the wrong decision,” Craig writes. She cites the act’s expansion of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to include the detention without bail of noncitizen aliens while their immigration proceedings were pending to nonviolent offenders and provides for detaining aliens who are charged with or convicted of assaulting a law enforcement officer. 
 
Craig comes to her lament after standing “side by side with protesters on the streets of Minneapolis and opposite dozens of armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Whipple Federal Building.” She makes no mention of the victims of these aliens’ <a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-arrests-dozens-criminal-illegal-aliens-convicted-murder-child-rape-and-more">crimes</a> — crimes that put them on the ICE radar and, thanks to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, were free to live as “neighbors” instead of being detained by law enforcement in the local jails. 
 
How did her fellow DFL-er and political rival Peggy Flanagan respond? She pounced on it as an inexcusable failing in the moral purity test that the Minnesota extremist cabal uses as the standard operating procedure in politics. Flanagan posted on X a video clip of Craig voicing her support for the bill before her walk-back, adding, “Nothing can undo the damage that has been done.” Shots fired.
“Minnesotans want common sense,” Michele Tafoya, a Republican seeking that seat, told The Daily Wire. “We want law and order. But we are run by far Left career politicians who put their own careers ahead of the safety of innocent, law-abiding Minnesotans. Some of them are crazy, some of them are cowards and some of them are both. It has to change.”
“Angie Craig turning her back on the Laken Riley Act because her far Left base demands it is a craven act. Moderate Democrats have gone extinct in Minnesota,” she added.
In Minnesota, we were offered a bait-and-switch with Walz, who, in statewide elections and in his miserable bid for vice president alongside Kamala Harris, was touted as an American Everyman action figure, complete with a vintage truck, Mountain Dew, and hunting accessories. But his <a href="https://www.americanexperiment.org/what-america-needs-to-know-about-tim-walz-of-minnesota/">record </a>reveals extremist policies and disdain for the average fellas he was recruited to represent. Walz is one example of a new trend on the Left: Campaign as a moderate and, once elected, push hard-Left, radical policies.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has appeared on various conservative platforms with a moderate <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/01/15/us-news/gavin-newsom-backtracks-on-outrageous-ice-claims-made-by-his-own-team-in-shapiro-interview/">tone</a>. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger&#8217;s State of the Union <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dem-rising-stars-sotu-rebuttal-ripped-conservatives-anyone-who-claims-she-moderate-liar">rebuttal</a> last month displayed rank hypocrisy and a laughable attempt at &#8220;Moderate Dem&#8221; rebranding.
Spanberger, who ran as a moderate, is now proposing sweeping, state-wide tax hikes, and criticizing immigration enforcement to the point of <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/dhs-blasts-spanberger-potential-release-182714286.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall">denying</a> an ICE detainer for an illegal immigrant with over 30 arrests accused of stabbing a 41-year-old woman to death at a bus stop in Fairfax County. Even socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani leveraged the &#8220;affordability&#8221; buzzword and an inclusive demeanor to obfuscate sky-high tax policies and his anti-Jewish, anti-Israel history.
We’ll continue to see this leftward march, purity tests, and hyperbolic rhetoric in support of these extreme measures — unhindered hormone and surgical procedures on minors for sex transitions, unlimited abortion, allowing males to compete against females in sports and opening bathrooms and locker rooms to all genders — and now siding with criminal aliens against law abiding citizens who truly want their neighborhoods safe rather than be battlegrounds for the latest Karen to proclaim her woke creds with an “ICE OUT” sign and safety whistle. What do you expect from a governor who publicly called ICE officers Nazis and compared them to the <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5307956-minnesota-gov-tim-walz-gestapo-trump/">Gestapo</a>? 
 
Rest in peace to the moderate Democrat who understood the errors of the Biden administration&#8217;s open border policy, who saw the damage of crime, rising welfare burdens, failed assimilation, and the deaths of innocent Americans at the hands of illegal aliens, and worked toward a common-sense solution — even (gasp!) voting with Republicans. In fact, high-profile wins like Mamdani&#8217;s and Spanberger&#8217;s have emboldened the progressive wing, raising the possibility of an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez <a href="https://x.com/SteveGuest/status/2028301350006595984?s=20">presidential bid</a> in 2028 over a moderate candidate. 
 
Bucking the far-Left puts politicians and civilians alike squarely in the fascist camp — just ask former Minnesota <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4982938-dean-phillips-my-voice-was-ignored/">Congressman Dean Phillips</a> or Pennsylvania <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-old-city-fridays-at-fettermans-protest-gaza-israel-war/">Senator John Fetterman</a>. If you’re a moderate, you’re owed any targeted violence, protest, or condemnation coming your way, even if it’s in a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/anti-ice-mob-storms-minnesota-church-over-pastors-alleged-ties-immigration-enforcement">house of worship</a>. 
 
How far Left are Democrats willing to go? If it’s a way to rile up the extremist base, keep the spotlight off the bottomless fraud scandals, and make the Trump administration Public Enemy Number One, the sky’s the limit. The extremists are at the wheel, and after flattening any moderates in their party, they’ve backed up the truck, ready for another round of hit-and-run.
* * *
Jenna Stocker is editor and publisher of American Experiment’s quarterly magazine. A former Marine Corps officer, Stocker also contributes to The Federalist and National Review.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Minnesota Democrats Hold News Conference Ahead Of State Of The Union

R.I.P. The Moderate Democrat

Abortion

Democrats

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Leftism

Liberalism

Minnesota

Opinion

Progressivism

A Democrat Senate candidate, looking to court the votes of working and middle-class families in Iowa, held a campaign event at a Leftist bookstore that once promoted a 14-year-old “drag queen” and routinely stocks sexually explicit books parents don’t want their kids to access at school. 
Zach Wahls, running for the seat currently held by Senator Joni Ernst, hosted an event at the Ames-based Dog-Eared Books, a bookstore that remains a haven for leftist ideology. The bookstore has promoted &#8220;Drag Queen Story Hour&#8221; for children and called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 
At the event, Wahls and his wife, romance novelist Chloe Angyal, <a href="https://www.mobilize.us/zachwahls/event/900039/">discussed</a> “the art of storytelling, the demands of public service, and the intersection of writing and advocacy.” They also discussed how their “parallel careers as authors have shaped their approach to politics, family, and the urgent work of building a better Iowa.” 
While Wahls has portrayed himself as a moderate seeking to work across partisan lines, Dog-Eared Books was a fitting venue for the Senate hopeful. Wahls has a documented history of advocating for leftist politics, though he <a href="https://zachwahls.com/meet-zach-wahls/">pledges</a> to &#8220;always put Iowa families first, no matter what.&#8221;
In September 2021, Dog-Eared Books <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CTSLAH9D2No/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D">promoted</a> a teenage boy “drag performer” who goes by the stage name Lonika LaBelle Knight.
“Lonika is a 14 years old drag queen with almost three years of experience under her belt. She nabbed the title of Miss Mason City Youth Pride and performs regularly at Lefty’s Live Music and The Garden Nightclub,” the bookstore posted on Instagram. “She can dance, twirl and capture the attention of everyone in a room with sass and class!”
That same performer returned in June 2023 for “a drag storytime” aimed at children. The bookstore <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CtutfoTOBKa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D">posted</a> on Instagram that the event would “feature movement activities alongside a picture book reading so kids can engage both their minds and bodies.”
<div id="attachment_1054155" style="width: 1005px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1054155" class="size-full wp-image-1054155" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-05-at-9.03.57-AM.png" alt="" width="995" height="999" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-05-at-9.03.57-AM.png 995w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-05-at-9.03.57-AM-300x300.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-05-at-9.03.57-AM-574x576.png 574w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-05-at-9.03.57-AM-150x150.png 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-05-at-9.03.57-AM-768x771.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 995px) 100vw, 995px" />Dog-Eared Books/Instagram.</div>
Dog-Eared Books has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dogearedbooksames/posts/pfbid02BxtSgY7jjQf3xq9kxo8q3KXhW4FtBvdBSeUSyz6AnxJfhcxuJJYZitqkKwVtrcrbl?rdid=zAKdxXXuBuAuZWKp">hosted</a> a “Tattoos for Palestine” fundraiser, <a href="https://shop.dogearedbooksames.com/lists/LFoOMjVaW1e0">maintains</a> a “Books for Fighting Fascism” list that includes a book by leftist Senator Bernie Sanders, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dogearedbooksames/posts/pfbid02WFRj6eM98T5tm8Y4768j5HYFWWSoSFMHY1ZxGdRbQ3CnGPrufAEN5sgrVv5TrjWHl?rdid=bBddJGdRmSsMAYxS">called</a> for ICE to be abolished, and has a “You Can’t Read That At School” book <a href="https://dogearedbooksames.com/lists/LJuzFSmrJNY0">selection</a>. That section includes books like “Let’s Talk About It,” a graphic novel that contains explicit depictions of sex. 
The bookstore also released a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CqI36acNBXW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D">statement</a> slamming Iowa Republicans when they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/iowa-bans-transgender-procedures-on-minors-trans-identifying-students-from-using-public-facilities-opposite-of-biological-sex">voted</a> to pass a law shielding kids from transgender procedures. It also <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq_nWwqNk1-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D">raised</a> over $3,000 for the Iowa Trans Mutual Fund, a <a href="https://www.iowatransmutualaidfund.org/aboutus">group</a> that provides grants to Iowans seeking &#8220;gender-affirming care.&#8221; 
As a state senator, Wahls has vehemently opposed laws aimed at protecting kids from transgender surgeries and cross-sex hormonal procedures. He <a href="https://x.com/ZachWahls/status/1633580068696907778">claimed</a> that there was “blood on the hands” of Iowa Republicans who supported the law. His opposition was based on questionable evidence that claimed children would be more likely to commit suicide if they weren’t given transgender procedures. 
Wahls, who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzzDOzKagHA">rose</a> to prominence after discussing his experience of being raised by a lesbian couple, has close connections to <a href="https://oneiowa.org/">One Iowa</a>, an activist group &#8220;rooted in intersectional advocacy for LGBTQ Iowans.&#8221; Wahls toured with the group to promote gay marriage back in 2012 and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPV-fDydoKI&amp;t=417s">presented</a> an award to them.
One Iowa <a href="https://oneiowa.org/resources/medicalcareban/">offers</a> to help gender-confused kids access cross-sex hormones from out-of-state providers and schedule surgeries outside of Iowa. The group pushes girls to find breast binders to compress their chest so that it looks more masculine and other gender-confused kids to pursue “voice therapy.” The radical organization <a href="https://x.com/OneIowaAction/status/1493686950959714309?s=20">praised</a> Wahls for supporting male participation in female sports. 
Despite his links to the far-Left, Wahls’ <a href="https://zachwahls.com/issues/">campaign website</a> portrays him as a moderate focused on cutting costs and combatting political corruption. Wahls <a href="https://zachwahls.com/issues/">claims</a> to support securing the border by hiring thousands more Border Patrol agents and immigration judges, and wants to ensure “secure” elections. He also says he wants to “restore abortion access,” pass paid family and medical leave, and a path to “legal status” for illegal aliens “who’ve been here for years, are working, and haven’t committed crimes.”

MixCollage-06-Mar-2026-01-44-PM-2267

‘Family First’ Democrat Senate Hopeful Campaigns At Bookstore That Promoted Teen ‘Drag Queen’

Democrat Senate Hopeful Campaigns At Bookstore That Pushed Teen 'Drag Queen'

Iowa

LGBT

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has alerted all 50 states that affirming &#8220;biological reality&#8221; does not constitute child abuse or neglect under federal law.
&#8220;We sent letters to every state reminding them that children may not be removed from their home solely because parents declined to support a child&#8217;s self-identification as the opposite sex,&#8221; said Alex Adams, the Assistant Secretary for the ACF, in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWhuT4EHHdQ&amp;t=2s">video</a> published by HHS.
&#8220;Removing a child from their home must be based on objective evidence or imminent risk of serious harm. So a state&#8217;s decision to break up a family cannot be based solely on a parent&#8217;s objection to radical gender ideology or irreversible sex rejecting medical interventions,&#8221; Adams stated.
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President Trump highlighted the importance of protecting families from being labeled as abusive for rejecting gender ideology at last week&#8217;s State of the Union <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-do-you-not-stand-the-jaw-dropping-moments-democrats-remained-seated-at-sotu?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98How+Do+You+Not+Stand%3F%E2%80%99%3A+The+Jaw-Dropping+Moments+Democrats+Remained+Seated+At+SOTU">address</a>. He told the story of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maryland-refused-to-give-back-a-virginia-runaway-because-her-parents-misgendered-her-then-she-was-sex-trafficked-mother-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sage Blair</a>, whose parents were denied custody of the Virginia teen for not affirming her transgender identity, as reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maryland-refused-to-give-back-a-virginia-runaway-because-her-parents-misgendered-her-then-she-was-sex-trafficked-mother-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> in 2023.
<div>&#8220;HHS is sending a clear and unequivocal message to all 50 states about cases like that of Sage Blair, acknowledging biological reality and exercising sincerely held religious beliefs should not constitute child abuse or neglect under federal law,&#8221; Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brian Christine stated in the HHS video.</div>
Parents across the country, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/murdered-by-gender-ideology-mother-whose-daughter-committed-suicide-blasts-child-protective-services" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a>, <a href="https://becketfund.org/case/m-c-and-j-c-v-indiana-department-of-child-services/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana</a>, and <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2024/10/17/exclusive-gender-confused-kids-taken-non-affirming-parents-one-family-fight-son-back/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maryland</a>, have had their children taken away by child welfare services for affirming their child’s sex.
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During the State of the Union address, President Trump called for further federal action to protect families from the harms of gender ideology.
“Surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will. Who would believe that we’re even talking about it? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately,” Trump said.
The <a href="https://acf.gov/media/press/2026/acf-defends-biological-reality-parental-rights-letter-50-states">letter</a> from the ACF appears to be an initial step in answering President Trump&#8217;s directive.
The letter reminded states that child welfare systems are supported by federal funding, noting the ACF has a &#8220;vested interest and duty in ensuring funds are used appropriately.&#8221;
&#8220;States have a duty to protect children from abuse and neglect while safeguarding parental rights and federal resources. Recently, ACF has received reports of certain states removing children from their homes because the parent disagreed with the rejection of the child’s sex, including sex-rejecting interventions,&#8221; the letter states. &#8220;States receiving federal child welfare funding are obligated to ensure that investigations and removals are grounded in objective evidence of harm or imminent risk, and that parents are afforded their full procedural and substantive rights.&#8221;
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</div>
The ACF encouraged states to clearly define the terms &#8220;abuse&#8221; and &#8220;neglect,&#8221; saying these definitions should clarify that affirming a child&#8217;s sex and &#8220;refusing to condone sex-rejecting interventions&#8221; does not constitute abuse.
Several states have already taken steps to legally clarify that affirming a child’s sex is not abuse, including <a href="https://iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2025/house/bills/HB1412/HB1412.06.ENRS.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indiana</a>, <a href="https://iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2025/house/bills/HB1412/HB1412.06.ENRS.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North Carolina</a>, and <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/resources/definitions-child-abuse-and-neglect-texas/#:~:text=Exceptions,A%20child's%20expressed%20sexual%20orientation">Texas</a>.

Trans Protest

Trump Admin Sends New Guidance To All 50 States On Trans Kid Disputes

HHS Tells All 50 States That Affirming 'Biological Reality' Is Not Child Abuse

Gender Identity

radical gender ideology

The Supreme Court sided with a group of parents challenging a California policy that allowed schools to keep kids&#8217; so-called gender transitions a secret.
In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the justices said that California policies that block schools from notifying parents about their child’s desire to change their sex and be referred to by incorrect pronouns likely violate their religious liberty. The ruling comes after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a lower court’s ruling siding with parents challenging California’s policies.
“We conclude that the parents who seek religious exemptions are likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Clause claim,” the Supreme Court majority <a href="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63d954d4e4ad424df7819d46/69a61b347a7b680a9027a546_25A810.pdf">wrote</a>. “The parents who assert a free exercise claim have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs. California’s policies violate those beliefs.”
The California Department of Education has argued that the challenge should be considered moot because they claim that a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240113000622/https://www.cde.ca.gov/re/di/eo/faqs.asp">frequently-asked-questions</a> page posted by the department has been edited to show that they do not mandate parental exclusion, and so there is no more cause for complaint. The FAQ page included a line that said, “with rare exceptions, schools are required to respect the limitations that a student places on the disclosure of their transgender status, including not sharing that information with the student’s parents.”
While that guidance was deleted, policies that kept parents in the dark about their children were still promoted in statewide teacher trainings, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-officials-lied-about-secret-gender-transitions-in-schools-documents-show">according</a> to documents uncovered by the Thomas More Society.
Policies prohibiting local school districts from passing measures requiring teachers to inform parents about a student’s identity were signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
“Gender dysphoria is a condition that has an important bearing on a child’s mental health, but when a child exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria at school, California’s policies conceal that information from parents and facilitate a degree of gender transitioning during school hours. These policies likely violate parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children,” the majority wrote.
They added that “the intrusion on parents’ free exercise rights here—unconsented facilitation of a child’s gender transition—is greater than the introduction of LGBTQ storybooks we considered sufficient to trigger strict scrutiny in Mahmoud.”
Mahmoud was a case from last year where the court ruled that a Maryland county violated the rights of parents who wanted to opt their kids out of instruction related to LGBT content.
Paul Jonna, special counsel at the Thomas More Society and partner at LiMandri and Jonna LLP, said the ruling was a major victory for parents.
“This is a watershed moment for parental rights in America,” she said. “The Supreme Court has told California and every state in the nation in no uncertain terms: you cannot secretly transition a child behind a parent’s back. The Court’s landmark reaffirmation of substantive due process, its vindication of religious liberty, and its approval of class-wide relief together set a historic precedent that will dismantle secret gender transition policies across the country.”
The court&#8217;s liberal justices — Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — wanted to block the parents’ challenge.

MixCollage-02-Mar-2026-06-37-PM-4583

Supreme Court Slaps Down California Policy On Gender-Confused Kids

California

Courts

Gavin Newsom

Religious Liberty

Supreme Court

U.S.

In a wide-ranging conversation last year, OpenAI&#8217;s Sam Altman said that his dream policy in the artificial intelligence space would be giving users the same amount of privilege that they enjoy with doctors or lawyers. That is, make sure your conversations with ChatGPT can never be seen by the government.
“If I could get one piece of policy passed right now, relative to AI, the thing I would most like, and this is in tension with some of the other things that we&#8217;ve talked about, is I&#8217;d like there to be a concept of AI privilege,” Altman <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KmpT-BoVf4&amp;t=1911s">told</a> podcast host Tucker Carlson last September. “When you talk to a doctor about your health or a lawyer about your legal problems, the government cannot get that information.&#8221; 
&#8220;We have decided that society has an interest in that being privileged and that a subpoena can&#8217;t get that, the government can&#8217;t come asking your doctor for it, whatever. I think we should have the same concept for AI,&#8221; he added. 
If you&#8217;re wondering what chats may fall into this basket, look no further than this month&#8217;s deadly mass shooting in Canada.
Months before he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/youtube-confirms-trans-themed-page-is-linked-to-canada-mass-shooting-suspect">opened fire</a> on Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and killed six people, Jesse Van Rootselaar <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/openai-employees-raised-alarms-about-canada-shooting-suspect-months-ago-b585df62?mod=e2tw">raised</a> warning signs among OpenAI employees for conversations he had with ChatGPT on gun violence scenarios. On February 10, a dress-wearing Van Rootselaar <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/youtube-confirms-trans-themed-page-is-linked-to-canada-mass-shooting-suspect">gunned down</a> his mother and brother before going to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia and killing another six people, including five children aged 12 and 13. Van Rootselaar died the day of the attack from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 
After Van Rootselaar was identified as the attacker, OpenAI reached out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to assist the investigation. Canadian officials have not been impressed with OpenAI’s handling of the situation. 
Those conversations, which took place in June 2025, were not reported to law enforcement, though his account was banned, the Wall Street Journal first reported. It is unclear the content of the conversations. Canadian officials have summoned OpenAI employees for meetings to discuss their handling of the incident.
Altman said that he had pushed policymakers in Washington, D.C. to adopt protections for AI companies and was confident about the prospects.
“I was actually just in D.C. advocating for this. I feel optimistic that we can get the government to understand the importance of this and do it,” he said. 
Previous Daily Wire reporting found that ChatGPT <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/best-of-2025-read-chatgpts-chilling-instructions-to-young-girl-seeking-covert-abortion">will advise</a> young girls on how to access illegal abortion pills without parental knowledge, at the same time discouraging them from visiting life-affirming crisis pregnancy centers. ChatGPT also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chatgpt-will-help-kids-access-gender-affirming-resources-behind-their-parents-backs">encourages</a> gender-confused kids to obtain so-called “gender-affirming” resources like chest binders behind their parents’ backs.
British Columbia Premier David Eby <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/eby-openai-tumbler-ridge-9.7102942">said</a> Monday that he had read reports about “the possibility that OpenAI had received advanced notice of the shooter&#8217;s intentions in regard to the mass murder that took place in Tumbler Ridge.&#8221; 
&#8220;With shock and dismay, like many British Columbians, I am trying to figure out how it could be possible that a large group of staff within an organization could bring this kind of information forward and ask the police to be called and the decision be made not to do that,&#8221; he added. 
He said that “from the outside,” it looked like OpenAI could have prevented the shooting and called for the federal government to establish a “national threshold” for reporting for AI companies when individuals are plotting violence. 
Canada’s Federal AI Minister Evan Solomon met with employees from OpenAI on Tuesday to discuss their safety protocols. 
OpenAI says that its models are designed to discourage real-world violence and have a system in place to flag troubling content for review and potential law enforcement referral. Giving AI companies privacy privileges could complicate how they handle potential threats of violence. 
And even if a policy of “AI privilege” were adopted, it is possible that duty to report provisions would be included. Most states have laws in place that require mental health professionals to report clients who may be a danger to themselves or others. 
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on whether Altman still advocated for privacy immunity for AI companies.

MixCollage-25-Feb-2026-01-01-PM-1927

Deadly Trans Shooter Scandal Could Disrupt ChatGPT’s ‘AI Privilege’ Push

Sam Altman-Backed ‘AI Privilege’ Could Keep Trans Shooter Convos Hidden

Artificial Intelligence

Canada

ChatGPT

OpenAI

Sam altman

Just a few years after boasting about how transgender surgeries were “huge money makers,” Vanderbilt University Medical Center will no longer perform the procedures.
The Nashville-based health care center confirmed to The Daily Wire that the surgeries, which include procedures like crafting pseudo-genitalia for gender-confused individuals and removing the breasts of women who identify as men, were being phased out for logistical reasons.
“Due to operational limitations and lack of surgical coverage, Vanderbilt Health will cease providing gender-affirming plastic surgeries for adults,” a spokesman for the hospital told The Daily Wire. “Vanderbilt Health continues to provide nonsurgical gender-affirming care for adults 19 years and older. Vanderbilt Health does not provide any gender-affirming care for patients younger than 19.”
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, also known as Vanderbilt Health, is a separate entity from Vanderbilt University.
The hospital’s transgender medical program first <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/huge-money-maker-video-reveals-vanderbilts-shocking-gender-care-threats-against-dissenting-doctors">faced criticism</a> in September 2022 when Daily Wire host Matt Walsh published videos highlighting comments from Dr. Shayne Sebold Taylor discussing how lucrative transgender surgeries were.
“It’s a lot of money,” said Taylor, the program’s director at the time. “These surgeries make a lot of money.”
Taylor discussed how “chest reconstruction” could bring in $40,000 per patient and described “female-to-male bottom surgeries” — where a fake penis is constructed by taking skin from the forearm, abdomen, and thigh — as “huge money makers.”
“These surgeries are labor intensive, there are a lot of follow-ups, they require a lot of our time, and they make money,” Taylor said. “They make money for the hospital.”
Vanderbilt Health&#8217;s transgender center opened in 2018, and Taylor <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2018/08/21/vanderbilt-transgender-health-clinic-nashville-tennessee/1054571002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> its purpose was “to coordinate” patients&#8217; “care wherever they are in the transition process.”
Taylor has since left VUMC and now runs a primary care center in Massachusetts and <a href="https://www.bluecanyonprimarycare.com/about">describes</a> herself as an expert in “general LGBTQ Health and Adolescent Medicine.”
The investigation from Walsh prompted a statewide probe from Republican officials who moved quickly to pass a ban on transgender procedures for kids. That ban was challenged by the ACLU, but was upheld in June 2025 by the Supreme Court.
Over two dozen states have passed laws to shield minors from transgender surgeries and hormonal procedures. The Trump administration has come down hard on hospitals that offer transgender procedures to kids, pulling federal funding and initiating investigations into hospitals across the country.
One <a href="https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default?BillNumber=HB2498&amp;GA=114">bill</a> currently making its way through the Tennessee legislature would prohibit dollars from TennCare, the state’s health funding program for impoverished people, from funding transgender procedures.

Four Surgeons discuss each Other Surgical Precision and Healthcare Expertise  before the Operation case

After Boasting About $40K Trans Surgeries, Vanderbilt Health Reverses Course

Nashville

Social Issues

Tennessee

transgender surgery

Alabama Attorney General Stephen Marshall is leading a coalition of 20 states demanding the American Medical Association halt its support of hormonal therapies as treatment for gender dysphoria in children, after the organization withdrew support for child sex-rejecting surgeries.
“We thus find it concerning that the AMA continues to support the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria in minors,” the attorneys general wrote in a letter to AMA President John Whyte. “The quality of evidence is the same as it is for surgeries: low and very-low quality.”
&#8220;The American Medical Association has finally admitted what many have warned for years: its recommendations for surgeries on children were not grounded in solid evidence, despite telling doctors and families otherwise,” Attorney General Marshall told The Daily Wire. “Yet the same weak science underpins puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. You cannot dismiss one intervention as unsupported while continuing to push the rest. When children&#8217;s lives and futures are at stake, anything less than full scientific honesty is reckless. The AMA must follow the science completely, not selectively.&#8221; 

Marshall warned the AMA’s inconsistencies could be misleading the public and violate Alabama’s consumer protection laws, which state it is unlawful for an organization to represent that “goods or services” have “uses, benefits, or qualities that they do not have,” according to the letter. 
“We remain concerned that providers, patients, and their families in our States are being confused or misled by the AMA regarding the safety and efficacy of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria in minors,” the letter says.
To avoid a “formal investigation” Marshall asked the AMA to answer a series of questions meant to clarify its position on the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones as treatment for pediatric gender dysphoria, within 30 days.  
“While we hope to avoid a formal investigation under our consumer protection laws, we do have concerns that the AMA may be violating those laws,” the letter says.
The AMA recently told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/health/gender-surgery-minors-ama.html">New York Times</a> and other news <a href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/patient-safety-outcomes/ama-alters-position-on-gender-affirming-surgeries-for-minors/">outlets</a> that “surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood” due to the absence of “clear evidence&#8221; supporting their use. 
“If you agree that there is insufficient evidence to support using surgical interventions to treat gender dysphoria in minors — as your recent statement indicates — we do not understand how you can find that there is sufficient evidence to support using hormonal interventions to treat gender dysphoria in minors,” Marshall writes in the letter.  
“These interventions have not been shown to be any safer for children than sex-change surgeries are, and in fact may be all the more dangerous precisely because they are viewed as not as serious. But hormones can leave a child sterilized just as surely as surgery can,” the letter states. 
The AMA’s turnabout came shortly after the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) published a February 3 <a href="https://www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/health-policy/positions/2026-gender-surgery-children-adolescents.pdf">position statement</a> recommending “surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old,” after reviewing available evidence. The ASPS also pointed out in the statement there is &#8220;substantial uncertainty” of the “long-term benefits and harms” of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. 
Marshall successfully <a href="https://www.alabamaag.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025.5.1-Attorney-General-Steve-Marshall-Announces-Victory-in-Defense-of-Alabamas-Law-Prohibiting-Sex-Change-Procedures-for-Minors.pdf">defended</a> Alabama’s law banning sex-rejecting procedures for minors during Boe v. Marshall and through litigation discovered hundreds of pages of documents revealing the political forces informing transgender medicine. This included emails showing former Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Richard “Rachel” Levine <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admins-rachel-levine-met-with-wpath-as-he-pushed-for-removal-of-trans-surgery-age-restrictions?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Biden+Admin%E2%80%99s+Rachel+Levine+Met+With+WPATH+As+He+Pushed+For+Removal+Of+Trans+Surgery+Age+Restrictions">controversially</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-identifying-biden-official-allegedly-behind-push-to-ditch-age-guidelines-for-transgender-procedures-docs-show?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trans-Identifying+Biden+Official+Allegedly+Behind+Push+To+Ditch+Age+Guidelines+For+Transgender+Procedures%3A+Docs+Show">pressured</a> the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) into removing gender surgery age minimums from its clinical guidance, called the Standards of Care Version 8.
WPATH’s clinical guideline, which recommends children receive puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, has been discredited and heavily criticized for lacking scientific rigor.
A 2025 <a href="https://opa.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2025-11/gender-dysphoria-report.pdf">report</a> from the Department of Health and Human Services on the treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria said the WPATH guidelines were “rated among the lowest in quality” and “have not been recommended for implementation by systematic reviews (SRs) of guidelines.” 
“Despite their lack of trustworthiness, for more than a decade WPATH guidelines have served as the foundation of the healthcare infrastructure for gender dysphoric (GD) youth in the United States,” states the report. 
Marshall views the AMA’s recognition of a lack of evidence to support child sex-change surgeries as a “tacit acknowledgement” that WPATH’s standards are not &#8220;evidence-based,” according to the letter. 
The letter asks the AMA if it views the WPATH guidelines as “evidence-based, reliable, and consistent with the best practices of evidence- based medicine.”
The letter was signed by attorneys general from Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
“We know that we share a common goal in wanting to protect patients and their families and ensure that they receive trustworthy information about their medical care,” the letter reads.
The AMA did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.

Transgender Rights Advocates Rally Against The Supreme Court’s Ban On Gender-Affirming Youth Care

Medical Giant Retreats On Trans Kid Surgeries — But Stops Short Of Full Reversal

Alabama

American Medical Association

gender ideology

If Alaska Democrat Senate candidate Mary Peltola had her way, states would not be allowed to shield kids from transgender procedures like cross-sex hormones and double mastectomies.
Peltola, who briefly held Alaska’s lone House seat, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/561/cosponsors">signed</a> onto a resolution that condemned states that shield kids from transgender procedures. The Senate hopeful has consistently voted in line with Democrat orthodoxy on transgender issues throughout her time in the House. 
In July 2024, Peltola co-sponsored a House resolution that condemned state actions to protect unborn life and prohibit doctors from performing transgender medical procedures on kids. The resolution decried the “criminalization of the full range of sexual and reproductive health care such as abortion,” and so-called “gender-affirming care.” 
The resolution said that “no person” should be punished for “seeking or obtaining gender-affirming care.”
Specifically, the resolution targeted state legislation &#8220;designed to severely limit access to necessary gender-affirming care, especially for young people, which is against the recommendations of major medical organizations&#8221; and &#8220;designed to criminalize and penalize providing gender-affirming care to young people, providers of gender-affirming care for young people, and the parents of those young people for enabling access to this essential care.”
Over two dozen states have passed legislation protecting kids from transgender procedures.
Like many Democrats running for office in 2026, Peltola will have to address her support for transgender ideology. 
The election of President Donald Trump in 2024 showed that large swaths of Americans do not want kids to undergo transgender procedures or allow boys to compete as girls on sports teams. 
The far-left Human Rights Campaign is <a href="https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files/documents/OneYearOUT-rev6.pdf">urging</a> Democratic candidates to address attacks against radical transgender ideology directly and stress “fairness” and “safety” while not deviating from pushing transgender ideology. Potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates have also been <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/01/18/democrats-2028-struggle-trans-rights">shying</a> away from the issue, including failed 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris. 
Earlier this month, Peltola <a href="https://thealaskastory.com/dc-influencer-class-fundraisers-clash-with-peltolas-anti-insider-message/">reportedly</a> attended a fundraiser with major Democrat donor David Steinglass, a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-steinglass-a7525a1b/">self-described</a> “donor activist for transgender rights.” 
While she has downplayed questions on whether men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, Peltola <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023192">voted</a> against proposed <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/734">legislation</a> that would require schools receiving federal funding to not allow gender-confused boys onto girls’ sports teams. 
While campaigning for the House, Peltola was evasive on the issue, saying that she needed to “better acquaint myself with this issue, which I believe is more complicated than some make it out to be.”
“My starting point is that sports should be fair for all students, and we must protect the rights of all students – especially those that are already subject to significant discrimination,” she <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2022/08/06/candidate-qa-us-house-mary-peltola/">said</a>. “I look forward to learning more, and focusing on the many other pressing challenges the U.S. Congress is facing.”
Peltola also <a href="https://alaskabeacon.com/briefs/qa-with-2022-alaska-u-s-house-candidate-mary-peltola/">backed</a> the so-called “Equality Act,” which would embed protections for perceived “gender-identity” into federal civil rights laws and would give access for transgender-identifying men to women’s bathrooms. 
“The Equality Act must be passed to prevent unfair and unlawful discrimination,” she said. “I will work hard to see that through, with no exceptions, so that everyone in Alaska can live and love without fear.”
In 2023, Peltola <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023161">voted</a> against a Republican-backed proposal that would have prohibited schools from socially “transitioning” their kids without their knowledge or consent. 
Peltola did not respond to questions from The Daily Wire on her positions on transgender issues. She is hoping to unseat incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.

MixCollage-19-Feb-2026-02-34-PM-5459

Dem Senate Candidate’s Record On Child Trans Procedures Comes Into Focus

Alaska

dan sullivan

mary peltola

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is asking the Department of Health and Human Services to release a trove of emails and communications written by the Biden administration’s high-profile, transgender-identifying Assistant Secretary Richard “Rachel” Levine.
“It is crucial that Congress and the Executive Branch, including HHS, partner together to uncover any collusion or wrongdoing, including the suppression of evidence-based medicine by previous administrations, which can cause irrevocable harm to our country’s children,” the Louisiana Republican, who <a href="https://www.help.senate.gov/chair/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">chairs</a> the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), wrote in the letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In the letter, Cassidy requests emails and communications between Levine, members of his staff, and several medical organizations that support gender transitions for children, including the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society, that were exchanged during the Biden presidency.
“HHS remains committed to reversing the harmful policies enacted by Levine and the Biden Administration that did irreparable harm to children, and to ensuring biological reality guides our approach to public health. The Department will respond directly to Senator Cassidy,” Health and Human Services press secretary Emily Hilliard told The Daily Wire.
The Biden administration was known for its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-releases-report-promoting-transgenderism-abroad-for-inclusive-democracy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">embrace</a> of radical gender ideology and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-media-lied-about-child-gender-surgeries-and-heres-the-proof" target="_blank" rel="noopener">push</a> to provide experimental sex-rejecting interventions, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, to children and young adults.
Cassidy asks in the letter that HHS provide communications between Admiral Levine and White House personnel, including “former President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and staff,” about “gender affirming care” and the transgender agenda.
Levine <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admins-rachel-levine-met-with-wpath-as-he-pushed-for-removal-of-trans-surgery-age-restrictions?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Biden+Admin%E2%80%99s+Rachel+Levine+Met+With+WPATH+As+He+Pushed+For+Removal+Of+Trans+Surgery+Age+Restrictions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">controversially</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-identifying-biden-official-allegedly-behind-push-to-ditch-age-guidelines-for-transgender-procedures-docs-show?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trans-Identifying+Biden+Official+Allegedly+Behind+Push+To+Ditch+Age+Guidelines+For+Transgender+Procedures%3A+Docs+Show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pressured WPATH</a> into removing gender surgery age minimums from its clinical guidance, called the Standards of Care version 8, as revealed in emails made public during Boe v. Marshall, when Alabama Attorney General Stephen Marshall successfully <a href="https://www.alabamaag.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025.5.1-Attorney-General-Steve-Marshall-Announces-Victory-in-Defense-of-Alabamas-Law-Prohibiting-Sex-Change-Procedures-for-Minors.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defended</a> Alabama’s right to ban sex-rejecting procedures for minors.
“Former Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Levine and staff, exercised significant political influence over WPATH and possibly other medical and professional organizations,” Cassidy writes.
“That influence appears to have been directed toward and ultimately resulted in the removal of age limits for adolescent gender transition surgical interventions, including mastectomies, breast augmentation, facial surgeries, genital surgeries, and hysterectomies, from WPATH’s Standards of Care (SOC-8).”
Cassidy asked HHS to provide the requested emails, documents, and communications by March 5, 2026.
“Americans have every right to know the scientific rigor of the data behind policies and guidelines issued by medical and professional organizations, particularly given that these guidelines are widely used and relied upon by health care providers and patients, including minors,” Cassidy said.

Joe Biden

The New Move To Uncover Biden White House Emails On Youth Gender Policy

bill Cassidy

Rachel Levine

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Texas is suing a “radical gender” doctor whom the state alleges perpetrated medical fraud and attempted to subvert state law pertaining to gender treatments for minors.
Children&#8217;s Health System of Texas and <a href="https://utswmed.org/doctors/jason-jarin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Jason Jarin</a> <a href="https://www.childrens.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unlawfully</a> provided minors sex-rejecting medications, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, defrauded state insurance programs, and skirted state law, according to allegations in a <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/press/Petition_9.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“I will use every legal tool available to ensure radical gender activists like Jarin face justice for hurting our kids,” Paxton told The Daily Wire. “This criminal extremist not only permanently harmed children, but he also then defrauded Medicaid and stuck Texas taxpayers with the bill for this insanity. Experimental ‘transition’ procedures on minors are illegal, unethical, and will not be tolerated in Texas.”
In June 2023, Texas passed <a href="https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB14/id/2756089" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate Bill 14</a>, which banned sex-rejecting interventions for minors. Dr. Jarin, a Division Director at Children&#8217;s Health System of Texas and Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, continued to provide children cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers after the law went into effect on September 1, 2023, the lawsuit alleges.
Dr. Jarin billed males for birth control medications that were intended to serve as cross-sex estrogen, fraudulently used diagnostic codes when billing for sex-rejecting procedures, and gave puberty blockers to “otherwise healthy children under the guise of ‘precocious puberty,’&#8221; according to the lawsuit.
Puberty blockers, which can cost thousands of dollars, are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of precocious puberty, an endocrine disorder in which early sexual development occurs in children. They <a href="https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/116284/documents/HHRG-118-JU10-20230727-SD011.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are not FDA-approved</a> for the treatment of gender dysphoria.
“Although Texas law bans dangerous and experimental sex-rejecting procedures on children, the scourge of so-called ‘gender affirming care’ persists in the State of Texas,” the lawsuit reads. “Even worse, Texas taxpayers have been on the hook for millions of dollars in gender transition surgeries, hormones, and other procedures that turn otherwise healthy children and young adults into chronic medical patients.”
“Our top priority is the health and well-being of the patients and families we serve. We comply with all applicable local, state and federal health care law,” Children’s Health said in a statement.
“Due to ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to comment further at this time.”
In 2015, Children’s and UT Southwestern jointly opened a gender clinic, called the GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support clinic (GENECIS), which had more than 1,000 patients before abruptly closing in March 2022 after facing “intense scrutiny” as the public became more aware of the horrors of gender medicine, the lawsuit describes.
However, despite the public-facing closure of the gender clinic, healthcare providers continued to provide sex-rejecting procedures to children through the Adolescent and Young Adult clinics at Children’s and the Department of Pediatric Gynecology.
“Most patients continued to see the same providers at the same locations, and the partnership between UT Southwestern and Children’s remained essentially the same,” states the lawsuit.
Both the GENECIS and Adolescent and Young Adult clinics were “overseen by overlapping department chairs at UT Southwestern,” which included the Department of Pediatrics chair, Dr. Jorge Bezerra, Department of Pediatric Endocrinology chair, Dr. Perrin White, and the Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics chair, Dr. Richard Adams, the lawsuit describes.
When SB-14 went into effect, Dr. Jarin and two former GENECIS clinic doctors, Dr. Brett Cooper and Dr. Mary Lau, met with UT Southwestern leadership, including Bezerra, White, and Adams, to “discuss the implication of SB-14 for both institutions,” according to the lawsuit.
Dr. Jarin was primarily tasked, alongside White, Lau, and Cooper, with creating a “wean protocol&#8221; that allowed patients to wean off of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in compliance with SB-14 over a “medically appropriate” period of time, according to the lawsuit.  Patients who attended mental health sessions and were prescribed the medications before June 1, 2023, were eligible for the “wean protocol.”
Paxton claims this protocol was an attempt to subvert compliance with SB-14 and “justify the continued, illegal prescription of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to children,” in the lawsuit.
The “wean protocol” decreased the dosing of sex-rejecting hormones at such a low rate that it would take “2 to 5 years to wean completely off,” allowing children to maintain the feminizing or masculinizing effects of the drugs until age 18, when they could legally return to their “pre-SB-14 dosage,” according to the lawsuit.
Furthermore, if patients met either of two “exception” criteria, they were permitted to discontinue weaning altogether.
The protocol required patients to maintain the reproductive hormone levels of the opposite sex “in perpetuity,” claiming this was necessary to protect their bone health.
If patients failed to maintain these artificially high hormone levels, which are the intended result of cross-sex hormone therapy, they were granted an &#8220;exception&#8221; from weaning off of the outlawed drugs, according to the lawsuit.
Paxton said “there was no legitimate medical basis for their recommendation regarding bone health,” and the protocol was “always a pretext for patients to continue illegal cross-sex hormones,&#8221; as stated in the lawsuit.
&#8220;There is no evidence to justify maintaining these hormone levels over prolonged periods of time. The vast medical literature on this topic shows that these hormonal treatments did not produce the desired effect of improving psychological well-being,” <a href="https://donoharmmedicine.org/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpm&amp;utm_campaign=gg&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=20707841002&amp;gbraid=0AAAAAo-mml0lKhEjcTG1qPvNZ-1InzHPM&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAhtvMBhDBARIsAL26pjGko9yt7rnE12NZnMRYmHQmENC5qfv_zJoBEEi7b_Tigf_gGa9qfHEaAu4wEALw_wcB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Do No Harm</a> chairman Dr. Stanley Goldfarb told The Daily Wire. “Moreover, they are involved with all of the unfortunate side effects, including the potential for sterility as well as a number of genital problems associated with prolonged exposure to contra-sex hormones.&#8221;
Patients were also granted an exception from weaning off cross-sex hormones if their mental health team failed to document their “mental health stability at least every six months,” according to the lawsuit.
The same initial intake criteria used by UT Southwestern and Children’s to begin medicalizing gender confused children was used to continue cross-sex hormone therapy under the wean protocol, according to the lawsuit.
The 75-page lawsuit outlined multiple allegations of billing fraud and the subversion of SB-14, providing examples from multiple patients.
In the lawsuit, Texas claims both defendants violated the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act and the Texas Business &amp; Commerce Code. It also claims Dr. Jarin “knowingly” violated SB-14 “with respect to at least twelve minor patients.”
“Jarin and Children’s conspired to subvert compliance with SB-14 and to receive reimbursement for gender interventions in violation of State law. Defendants conspired to violate SB-14 and therefore receive reimbursement from Texas Medicaid in violation of State law and regulation,” states the lawsuit.
The federal government has not stated an intention to get involved in the Texas situation, but allegations of Medicaid fraud could draw interest from the Department of Justice.
UT Southwestern Medical Center did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.

Ken Paxton

Texas Attorney General Says Radical Doctor Broke The Law To Give Minors Sex-Rejection Interventions

Fraud

Medicaid

Kansas will enact legislation banning males who identify as female from using women’s bathrooms after Republican lawmakers overrode Democrat Governor Laura Kelly&#8217;s veto. 
The Kansas House <a href="https://www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/sb244/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> 87-37 on Wednesday to overturn Kelly’s veto of a <a href="https://www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/documents/sb244_enrolled.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill,</a> which requires that multi-occupancy private spaces in public buildings be separate by sex. The state Senate previously voted 31-9 on Tuesday to do the same. 
“Today, Speaker Hawkins and I signed the veto override for SB 244. Common sense has prevailed against Laura Kelly and the radical left, and now women and girl&#8217;s (sic) private spaces will be protected from biological men,” Senate President Ty Masterson wrote on social media on Wednesday, sharing a photo alongside House Speaker Dan Hawkins. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Today, Speaker Hawkins and I signed the veto override for SB 244. Common sense has prevailed against Laura Kelly and the radical left, and now women and girl’s private spaces will be protected from biological men. <a href="https://t.co/8UCu7tUzzK">pic.twitter.com/8UCu7tUzzK</a>
— Ty Masterson (@TyMastersonKS) <a href="https://twitter.com/TyMastersonKS/status/2024248789918196154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The law applies to multi-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower facilities designated for use by males or females.
The legislation also defines “gender” for purposes of state law as a person&#8217;s biological sex and requires driver’s licenses to reflect a person&#8217;s sex rather than gender identity. Birth certificates must also list a person’s sex. 
Responding to the override, Kelly <a href="https://www.governor.ks.gov/Home/Components/News/News/926/56">said</a> the bill was “poorly drafted” and would have “far-reaching consequences.” 
She claimed it would prohibit “brothers from visiting sisters’ dorms and husbands from wives’ shared hospital rooms.”
The bill&#8217;s passage was condemned by leftist groups such as the ACLU of Kansas. 
“This discriminatory bill undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government overreach and persecution,” said Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas. 
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) praised the state legislature for overriding the veto. 
“Congratulations to the Kansas Legislature on this important win for our state. Grateful for the strong leadership of Senate President Ty Masterson, Speaker Dan Hawkins, and the entire Legislature for standing up to radical left gender ideology, and delivering commonsense protections for Kansas girls,” <a href="https://x.com/RogerMarshallMD/status/2024276721168765012">said</a> Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) on Wednesday. 
The veto override was also praised by American Principles Project President Terry Schilling.
“Gov. Laura Kelly tried to smuggle boys into your daughters’ locker room. And when Kansans blocked her, she pretended it was about hospital visitation,” he told The Daily Wire. “What Laura Kelly and Democrats lack in common sense, they make up for with bald-faced lies and indifference to the safety of children.”
Last year, Kansas&#8217;s GOP supermajority <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kansas-republicans-override-dem-governors-veto-to-ban-trans-procedures-on-kids">overrode</a> Kelly&#8217;s veto to enact a law banning transgender medical procedures for children.

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