Detransitioner says she was denied opportunity to deliver Talarico a message at CNN town hall

Detransitioner Soren Aldaco said in an interview Monday that she tried to attend a CNN town hall with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico earlier this month, but organizers did not respond to her request until the night before the event and allegedly told her she could not participate.

During an interview on "The Katie Miller Podcast," host Katie Miller asked Aldaco, a 23-year-old detransitioner who alleged she was groomed online and subsequently pursued medical treatment as a teenager, about her criticism of Talarico and what her message to him would be.

"He needs to have a long-form conversation, a real face-to-face with someone like me. And, you know, I tried to when he did the CNN town hall, where he did the 'prove me wrong' [Steven] Crowder format, engaging with constituents, right? We tried to get me in that room to talk to him about this issue and to be able to give him my message through conversation, which I think is most effective. And they actually didn't get back to us until the evening before and said, 'No, we can't get you in that room,' like 'you can't talk to him,'" Aldaco said.

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Detransitioner Soren Aldaco claims she was barred from asking Senate candidate James Talarico questions about gender surgery at a CNN town hall. (Soren Aldaco/Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News via Getty Images)

CNN and Jubilee Media hosted a town hall with Talarico on Oct. 14, where he faced questions from the audience, as well as questions from moderator Erin Burnett.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled on June 26 that Aldaco had not missed the deadline to pursue her claims against a therapist and counseling provider, reversing a lower court's finding that her lawsuit was "time-barred" under the state's two-year statute of limitations for healthcare liability claims.

Miller asked her guest what she thinks Talarico is getting wrong in his positions on gender transition policies.

"I think he is failing to acknowledge the repercussions of how he's been wrong in the past, because I know he's said, 'Well, I said there were six genders, and I was incorrect. I was misinformed.' And it's like, OK, but what are the repercussions of that? Because I tried to get in contact with you across five bills, four years and two sessions, and you wouldn't talk to me about bills that would have even helped people who still currently identify as trans," Aldaco told Miller.

CNN did not return Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Talarico was asked about his past comments referring to God as "nonbinary" and using the Bible to justify his pro-choice stance on abortion during the CNN town hall.

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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico speaks during a campaign rally at the Cailloux Theater on Aug. 31, 2026, in Kerrville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

"You've said some concerning things in the past kind of related to faith and social issues. Things such as God is nonbinary, questions about how many genders there really are and your justifications using the Bible for abortion," Sarah Gardner, a Republican small business owner, said to Talarico.

"And so, I think that's led a lot of Christian voters to question the authenticity of your faith. And I wanted to ask you a very direct question. Do you believe that the Bible is the absolute source of truth and God's final authoritative word, even when our culture says otherwise?" she asked.

Talarico responded, "Yes."

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"And I think it's important to remember that even the early church, the disciples who actually knew Jesus of Nazareth, the early church, we often talk about as a singular body when, in reality, was more like early churches because there was a lot of disagreement, there was a lot of debate," he said.

Talarico then went on to explain his past comments as being "provocative," drawing a parallel to his own interpretation of scripture to Charlie Kirk’s.

During an interview last week, Talarico blamed Republican extremism for prompting some of his past controversial remarks, including assertions that God is "nonbinary" and that there are six biological sexes, arguing that those weren't issues he ran for office to discuss.

"I was put in a position where I had to fight back against that extremism. So, you mentioned some of my comments on gender or on issues affecting trans people. It's not like I ran for the legislature to talk about these things. Again, if you go back to my first session, I wanted to talk about public education, which is why I ran in the first place," he said, pointing to other issues on which he ran.

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He continued, "It's kind of ironic that they're clipping these things to make it sound like I'm the one who was talking about this when, in reality, it was the Republican extremists at the Capitol who were obsessed with talking about trans issues, obsessed with talking about people's private parts. That wasn't me. That was them that changed."

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Talarico's campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.