Texas Mom Says Her Daughter, 11, Got a Letter on Transitioning in Secret. Vance Wants the Sender in Prison

Rebekah Smith, a mother of six from Fort Worth, stood up at Thursday night's Fox News town hall with Vice President JD Vance holding a sheet of paper. "A few weeks ago, my daughter received a letter addressed to her, not to me, explaining how to transition from female to male without her parents ever knowing," she said. Her daughter is 11.

Smith then asked the question a lot of parents are asking: "If Republicans win, how are they going to keep the government out of my relationship with my own children?"

Vance didn't hedge. "I don't know who sent that letter to your child, but I think the person who sends a letter to an 11-year-old about gender transition, what I call that in my family is a pervert, and that person ought to go to prison," he said, to a long round of applause.

Host Jesse Watters told Smith his producers would "investigate this perverted letter." Vance went further: "Also talk to our staff because I'd like the Department of Justice to investigate that as well."

What we know, and what we don't

On camera, nobody named the sender. Some viral posts say the letter came from the girl's school. Smith didn't say that on air. What she did say is the part that matters: it was addressed to the child, not the parents, it explained how to transition, and it was built so the parents would never find out.

"I'm probably like most Americans where I'm sort of a live and let live guy," Vance said. "Why are you going around and trying to convince children to transition their gender? That is sick and disgusting. None of us signed up for it, and we've got to fight back against it."

If a school sent it, Texas already bars it

If anyone working for a Texas public school wrote that letter, they ran into state law. SB 12, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed on June 20, 2025, and which took effect Sept. 1, 2025, orders every district to bar employees from helping a student "socially transition" by taking a new name, new pronouns or other signs that deny the child's sex, "including by providing any information about social transitioning or providing guidelines intended to assist a person with social transitioning." Read the law's text.

The same law says a parent's right to direct a child's education and care "may not be infringed" by any public school. Parents can report a suspected violation to the school board, which has to investigate and, if it finds one, report it right away to the state education commissioner.

There's one catch. On Feb. 20, 2026, U.S. District Judge Charles Eskridge in Houston blocked that provision and three others after the districts being sued didn't oppose the request. But he dismissed the state education commissioner from the case, so his order covers only Houston, Katy and Plano schools. Fort Worth isn't one of them.

Why she asked Vance about Talarico

Smith tied her question to Texas' Senate race, where Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton faces Democratic state Rep. James Talarico on Tuesday. Watters opened the show saying the latest Fox News poll has the race tied, 49 to 49. Smith said Talarico "voted against banning gender procedures for minors" and is "promising to fight for trans kids in the Senate the same way he did in Austin."

The record backs her up on the vote. On May 12, 2023, Talarico voted no as the Texas House advanced SB 14 (record vote 1686, House Journal page 4214). SB 14 passed and has barred puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and transition surgeries for minors since Sept. 1, 2023.

Vance drew the contrast between the two candidates. "Ken Paxton has fought hard to prosecute those people, whereas James Talarico has fought hard to protect those people," he said, adding that Talarico "has actually called it abusive when parents try to prevent their children from transitioning." Paxton's office has sued Texas doctors it says broke SB 14. Texas Children's Hospital, which admitted giving minors transition treatments, now runs the country's first detransition clinic under a settlement with Paxton.

For now, a Fort Worth family has a letter and no name to go with it. The vice president has asked the Justice Department to find one.