Streisand Effect? The GOP’s Constant Attack Ads May Be Teaching Texas Kids the Word “Transgender”

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?