New Department of Education co-chair said conversion therapy is “psychologically beneficial,” affirming trans kids is “diabolical”
Sarah Perry formerly worked for Family Research Council and has a long history of making extreme comments about LGBTQ people
Written by Brianna January
Published
Sarah Perry, who is senior counsel at the Trump-Pence U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, has a history of making extreme anti-LGBTQ comments, including calling conversion therapy “psychologically beneficial” and describing the affirmation of trans youth as a “politically overt, diabolical ... avenue." Perry was recently appointed co-chair of the office’s combined Diversity and Inclusion and Employee Engagement Advisory councils.
Perry previously worked on education issues at the extreme anti-LGBTQ group Family Research Council, where she was the Common Core Coalition manager. She also worked as director of partnerships for FRC Action, the organization’s political arm. Additionally, Perry frequently guest-hosted the group’s anti-LGBTQ radio show, Washington Watch, during which she made numerous disparaging remarks about LGBTQ people, especially trans people.
The Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David called Perry an anti-LGBTQ extremist and said: “The idea that someone who calls gender identity 'pseudoscience' and attacks TV shows that promote the inclusion of transgender people is completely disqualifying and violates the fundamental idea of the diversity and inclusion she is tasked with overseeing.”
Perry has made extreme anti-LGBTQ comments while guest-hosting FRC’s radio show
Perry has called affirming trans children a “politically overt, diabolical ... avenue” and referred to a “transgender cult” and “cult mentality.”
Sarah Parshall Perry on Washington Watch 7.26.19
Citation From the July 26, 2019, edition of Family Research Council's Washington Watch
SARAH PERRY (HOST): A large portion, a full 30% here in the United States, of these individuals who express gender dysphoria have developmental disabilities like autism spectrum disorder, so there are numerous other factors at play here. And yet, these children are funneled in to this very convenient, politically overt, diabolical, as you've described it so appropriately, avenue to make sure that this political philosophy comes to fruition.
...
So, I think Posie Parker, who I I'm a huge fan of what she is doing across the pond on this notion of the transgender cult, which truly has a cult mentality — it is “accept no dissent.” It is everyone coming under the umbrella of uniformly without qualification accepting this notion that gender is a social construct, and that kind of rigidity in thinking is nothing but a cult.
Perry has said that the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy has “options ... that have been proven to be psychologically beneficial.” Conversion therapy seeks to change LGBTQ people’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Perry also once hosted Ricky Chelette of Living Hope Ministries after the Apple Store removed the ministry’s conversion therapy app, which the episode notes describes as “censorship.”
Sarah Parshall Perry on Washington Watch 6.18.19
Citation From the June 18, 2019, edition of Family Research Council's Washington Watch
PETER SPRIGG (FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL): And the heart of this resolution is the declaration that performing conversion therapy on young persons is ineffective, unethical, and harmful. And I simply believe that all three of those are false statements.
SARAH PERRY (HOST): So, you had a hand in taking the lead in drafting comments that were submitted to the California Assembly that were signed on to by a number of other partners who believe, as you do, as we do, that there are options for this particular counseling that have proven to be psychologically beneficial.
Perry claimed Drag Queen Story Hour is “grooming” children sexually. Anti-LGBTQ figures have regularly fearmongered and spread lies about Drag Queen Story Hour, including claiming the program seeks to “sexualize" children and to “groom our children into their unhealthy lifestyle” that includes “HIV and AIDS.” Drag Queen Story Hour is a national program in which drag queens read children’s books to kids at libraries, schools, and other public places. Right-wing protestors have shown up to Drag Queen Story Hour events with weapons, threatened, and harassed participants.
Sarah Parshall Perry on Washington Watch 8.23.19
Citation From the August 23, 2019, edition of Family Research Council's Washington Watch
SARAH PERRY (HOST): So, Drag Queen Story Hour’s a bit of a social phenomenon, and what we used to think were individual and sort of grassroots, uncoordinated efforts to get drag queens into public venues has actually revealed itself to be a very coordinated effort through a national organization that began in San Francisco a few years ago. So, we've talked about the foolishness of these Drag Queens Story Hours at libraries, public schools, but we have not yet delved into the notion that this is a grooming program, and here's why I think this is important, particularly for the parents who are going to be listening to this.
Perry described a teacher who was misgendering high school students as coming “from a place of compassion and care.”
Sarah Parshall Perry on Washington Watch 6.20.19
Citation From the June 20, 2019, edition of Family Research Council's Washington Watch
JOHN KLUGE (GUEST): As a Bible-believing Christian, I believe that God has created mankind as male and female, and that me as a teacher, if I was to call a student by an opposite-sex transgender first name, that would only be promoting them, promoting their behavior, which is harmful, and I don't want to harm my students. I love them and I care for them, and that's why I wanted to stay out of this issue and not be forced to promote a sexual agenda. I just wanted to teach my content and love the students.
SARAH PERRY (HOST): So, indeed this comes from a place of compassion and care.
Perry praised efforts to criminalize life-saving best practice health care for trans youth, including puberty blockers, falsely calling them “extreme radical, life-altering series of treatments.” Numerous medical studies demonstrate that affirming care is a necessity for many trans folks.
Sarah Parshall Perry on Washington Watch 2.26.20
Citation From the February 26, 2020, edition of Family Research Council's Washington Watch
SARAH PERRY (HOST): Well, you've been there on the ground. You've been talking with the leaders of the encouragement of this commonsense bill, minors. And you've written on this, Peter, and we're so desperate for reminders of the fact that minors cannot commit themselves to contracts. They cannot vote. They cannot drink alcohol.
And yet the legislation of the sort that's just passed out of these legislative committees in Alabama is of a kind that we find ourselves needing because of this widespread push to hurry children into gender transition as part of a coordinated progressive agenda. Such a tiny, tiny minority of the population, minor percentages, portions of percentages, pushing an extreme, radical, life-altering series of treatments for these minor kids. It just makes good sense.
Perry said she is on her daughter “like a hawk” to prevent her from becoming trans based on the unsupported hypothesis with insufficient evidence that being trans is a “social contagion.” She was hosting Wall Street Journal writer Abigail Shrier, who also compared being trans to having anorexia.
Sarah Parshall Perry on Washington Watch 7.9.20
Citation From the July 9, 2020, edition of Family Research Council's Washington Watch
SARAH PERRY (HOST): So, you talk a little bit about the research, the information from doctors, the story from doctors who were eager to talk about this a little bit. And one of the doctors that you talk about is Dr. Lisa Littman, who is an OBGYN-turned-health-researcher at Brown University, professor, and this is sort of critical in your formation of some of the research and the results here. You address it in Chapter 2 of your book. What did her research reveal to you?
ABIGAIL SHRIER (WALL STREET JOURNAL): Absolutely. She's a wonderful researcher, and basically, she noticed that there she was scrolling through her social media feed, she -- by the way, as a political progressive, she didn't have an axe to grind here -- she was just a public health researcher and a scientist who noticed that it didn't make sense in her social media feeds that so many adolescent girls were coming out as transgender with their friends. And when she decided to investigate it because she knew this was a [indecipherable], gender dysphoria was a very, very rare condition of discomfort in one’s biological sex. It’s extremely rare --, .001%, so one one-hundredth of 1%. And she decided to do a study. And what she found was that in friend groups, the prevalence rate of transgender identification was 70 times what would be expected, which meant this was a lot more like anorexia -- it was girls sharing and spreading their pain.
PERRY: Oh, my gosh. So, really, this is — this notion of social contagion, which to me sounded very foreign at the time, really is an identifiable trend, and that girls, as they are naturally are very relational creatures, and they are particularly susceptible to peer pressure in these environments.
And I got to tell you, it really hits home for me. As the mother of an almost 14-year-old girl, I am on her like a hawk. Now, she is raised with a mother who never shuts her mouth about things like this, so she's got it. She would see this coming, I think. But, I have to tell you, we've seen it happen with other kids at their school, and it absolutely breaks my heart, because you realize in that time they are not with you, when they are not in your physical presence, they are either with their friends or they are spending time online, they are so susceptible to the messaging of others. and this desire for repetition, for sameness, not to stand out. And yet this is the most tremendously affecting differentness you could possibly pursue.
Perry’s appointment comes as the Department of Education moves to undermine the rights of LGBTQ students
Perry’s work with the Trump-Pence Department of Education comes as the agency, under Secretary Betsy DeVos, works to undermine LGBTQ inclusion, and especially transgender inclusion, in schools. The New Civil Rights Movement reported on the department’s early rollback of inclusive policies for transgender students under the Trump-Pence administration:
Earlier in her tenure, DeVos rolled back Obama-era protections allowing trans students to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity. She later admitted that she did this even though she knew that it could lead to increased harassment, depression, and possibly suicide among transgender students.
In May, the department’s Office for Civil Rights sided with extreme anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom, claiming that Connecticut’s policy allowing transgender girls to participate on girls sports teams violates Title IX. In September, the department threatened to withhold funding from schools that allowed the inclusive practice to remain. LGBTQ Nation reported:
Just last month, the DOE began threatening to cut funding to schools and universities that openly support LGBTQ students, getting in the way of other’s “religious freedom.” The Department immediately reached out to several schools in Connecticut, promising to cut millions in funding if they allow trans students to participate in activities such as athletics.
The department’s rollback of LGBTQ rights is in line with FRC’s anti-LGBTQ work. FRC has opposed nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans; promoted the harmful and discredited practice of conversion therapy, including by testifying before state legislatures; filed an amicus brief in Lawrence v. Texas in support of anti-sodomy laws; and filed an amicus brief in Obergefell v. Hodges in support of bans on same-sex marriage. Additionally, the group’s official position is that “Homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it as it is associated with negative physical and psychological health effects. Thus, it is also harmful to society at large.”
Furthermore, FRC has a cozy relationship with the Trump-Pence administration, and Perry is just the latest FRC staffer to be hired by the administration. In 2018, FRC’s president, Tony Perkins, was appointed commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal government commission dedicated to the “right to freedom of religion or belief abroad” that “makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress.” In 2019, he was elected as chair of the commission. Additionally, FRC former chief of staff Shannon Royce is considered a “pivotal player” at the Trump-Pence Department of Health and Human Services.