Jeannette Cooper
This content was last updated Nov. 14, 2023, 11:40 p.m. UTC
Jeannette Cooper is an anti-trans activist in Chicago, Illinois. She is the parent of a transgender child who lost custody and visitation rights after refusing to support her non-binary child. The bulk of her activism involves providing testimony for bills that limit access to care for transgender youth as a co-founder of Partners for Ethical Care (PEC), an anti-trans activist group.
The adults have no problem helping this child, doing their job, walking the child from the building over here to the gas chamber over there.
Jeannette Cooper in Ohio, May 19, 2022, as seen on Erin Reed's Twitter/X account
Education and Marriage
According to LinkedIn, Cooper earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Secondary Education from Kalamazoo College in 2000, followed by her Master of Arts degree in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education from Michigan State University in 2005. She is listed as having been a doctoral candidate in education at DePaul university since 2015. Professionally, she has worked as an English teacher and technical writer.
Cooper has one child, born in 2007, from her marriage to Prashant Srivastava. Their marriage ended in 2015 and Cooper held primary custody of their child until 2019, in which her child expressed the urge for a change of name and requested being referred to by xe/xyr pronouns with xyr father. Cooper’s lack of support for her child led to a custody battle in which she lost all rights to visitation. An investigation for child abuse led to no evidence of neglect, but stated Cooper needed to “further [her] understanding of an[d] support of the minor child as relates to the minor child’s gender dysphoria.”
She reportedly negotiated a settlement in the custody case where she gave up any rights to visitation with her child in return for a commitment that her child would not access medical treatment for gender dysphoria until xe turns 18.
Partners for Ethical Care
Cooper is a co-founder of the activist group Partners for Ethical Care, an anti-trans organization whose belief statement claims “no child is born in the wrong body” and “gender ideology promotes a destructive and nefarious lie.” The group has offered support to legislation that limits gender-affirming care for minors and has appeared at conservative political rallies, including those held by the Republican Party of Texas, at which they spoke alongside other conservative activists.
The group’s other co-founders include Erin Brewer, Maria Keffler, Jennifer Krohn, and others.
The organization’s members have worked alongside prominent detransitioners Chloe Cole and Prisha Mosley, and their Twitter is regularly used to amplify anti-trans voices.
News Appearances and Activism
Cooper founded a support group on Facebook for parents of children who suffer from “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” a theoretical condition with no evidentiary base. Over sixty major psychological organizations have called for the cessation of its use.
Cooper has made appearances on Fox News to tell her story and represent her organization.
Legislative Support
Cooper testified in support of Kentucky’s House Bill 470, which sought to limit the availability of gender-affirming care to minors, allow teachers to misgender transgender students, and ban teaching materials that explain sexuality or gender identity to minors. Cooper, speaking for the Partners for Ethical Care, stated “it is impossible to be born in the wrong body. The mind is part of the body, not separate from it,” and went on to claim children grow out of gender identity exploration and “thrive once they don’t need the crutch of the transgender identity.” In reality, delaying care often leads to worsening mental health in transgender people.
During Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ push to restrict gender-affirming health care provided through Medicaid, Cooper once again spoke in support of cutting off availability. She called trans identities a “crutch” and “a placeholder for real suffering that hasn’t been named.” Transgender youth are several times more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, suicidal ideolation, and thoughts of self-harm when compared to cisgender peers, especially when left without access to gender-affirming care.