Streisand effect? The GOP’s constant attack ads may be teaching Texas kids the word ‘transgender’

This story originally appeared on Them.

Is Ken Paxton looking to make an omelette? Because he may be cracking quite a few eggs.

Some parents in a conservative subreddit are upset that the ubiquitous GOP-aligned ads in targeting Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, specifically those that highlight the Democrat’s political advocacy for transgender people, have inadvertently led to, well, kids learning about the existence of transgender people in the first place.

One Reddit user, who says they are a Texas parent, claimed in a Wednesday post on r/conservative that “every commercial break has 4-6 political ads” attacking Talarico, complaining about the side effects within their household.

“I understand the angle they’re going for, but dang. My kids didn’t even know what transgender meant until these ads started airing,” the concerned parent wrote. “Now they’re hearing about it constantly, and not because they went looking for it.”

The parent added that they were irritated that they had to explain trans identity to their kids on a timetable that they weren’t expecting. “Constantly talking about the things we oppose is actually giving them more attention than they would otherwise receive,” the poster continued. “Again I get the angle, keep these people away from influential positions within our government and advertising it. But we’re practically talking the very things we don’t want into existence.”

Some parents in the comments section underneath the post agreed that the anti-Talarico ads were having a sort of Streisand effect on knowledge about trans identity — a term used to describe attempting to censor information, only to end up spreading it.

“Agreed!! I don’t need the idea planted into their head a million times,” another user wrote.

Several other users, however, responded that this was an opportunity to be a parent and talk to their children about the topic.

“That’s a good opportunity for you to teach them about it,” one wrote. “The way I see it, I’d rather them learn from me than ask someone else who may be feeding them inaccurate information.”

“It is incumbent on you as a parent to teach your children about the things they will come across in the world,” another added. “They will come across transgender issues, they NEED to hear it from you and NOT the people that are sucked into the ideology.”

Right-wing politicians have increasingly referred to trans identity as “trans ideology” or “gender ideology” in an attempt to delegitimize it. In January 2025, the term received the imprimatur of the White House for the first time when President Donald Trump signed a sweeping anti-trans executive order that sought to narrowly define gender as binary and determined by one’s sex at birth, per Mother Jones.

Since the beginning of Talarico’s ascent in the Senate race — a contest against staunchly anti-trans GOP attorney general Ken Paxton — Republicans have zeroed in on Talarico’s support of trans youth in an apparent attempt to deflect from Paxton’s laundry list of damning controversies.

In September, Paxton debuted an ad that used an AI-generated version of Talarico showing the Democratic candidate delivering a fake sermon about gender and the Bible.

“In the beginning, God was nonbinary,” a deepfaked Talarico says in the ad, before going on to say that God created six genders, describing Jesus as a “radical feminist,” and calling himself a “Christian who hates Christianity.”

Members of President Trump’s inner circle have also resorted to fabrication to misrepresent Talarico. In May, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called Talarico the “first transgender Senate candidate” and earlier this month, vice president J.D. Vance, who has previously dressed in a poor attempt at drag, made an offhand comment alleging Talarico is gay. In September, Vance also attacked Talarico for saying that his favorite drag queen is the proud Texan Drag Race alum Alyssa Edwards.

The Reddit thread concerning the anti-trans ads comes shortly after former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan told Texas Monthly that Republican messaging focusing on transgender issues and “culture wars” were not resonating with voters.

“We’re just not paying attention to the issues that matter,” he said. “We’re still running transgender ads. It’s just not resonating. $100 million in ads, $125 million in ads, and nothing’s moved the needle here in Texas in a month in the Senate race.”

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