In both 2015, as well as 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Texas State Senator Charles Perry, who we noted that immediately after being sworn in as a state senator, talked of a “spiritual battle” being fought over abortion and same sex marriage that he likened to stopping the Holocaust. He has tried to pass same sex marriage bans based on “state’s rights”, voted for “trap laws” to close down the majority, if not all abortion clinics in Texas, pushed for unnecessary Voter ID bills to combat the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud, and voted to drug test welfare recipients (still always a failed conservative experiment). While this might make him sound like a Fundamentalist Baptist pillar, there’s also word that Perry frequents gentleman’s clubs and has had exotic dancers accuse him of stalking them. So, add some hypocrisy to the mix. In April of 2015, Perry co-sponsored SB 2065, a “religious freedom” bill that was written to allow people to use their faith to refuse marriage services to same sex couples. But believe it or not, that isn’t the worst issue position Perry took, as in July of 2015, he appeared at a “Homeland Terrorism Conference” hosted by the dodgy Christian Reporter News. (At the event, ISIS was referred to as “true Islam”, to give you an idea of how intolerant their ideas are.) Oddly, their discussion of Islamic terror also delved into theories that Muslims keep male sex slaves, or have sex with donkeys. So… that’s some healthy rhetoric. And it wasn’t a one-off, as Charles Perry freaked right the hell out after the Paris terror attacks, where he wrote to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to ask if there were any way that the state could refuse to admit Syrian refugees. He reiterated his paranoid fears on local conservative talk radio thereafter, insisting that Texas was a target for Islamic terror, especially if they took in Syrian refugees.
But it’s not like Charles Perry had to face any consequences of hanging out with hatemongers, and demonizing a whole religion in 2016, as he was allowed to run for re-election completely unopposed. Because Texas, that’s why.
So then it should come as little surprise that Charles Perry has not dialed back his Fundamentalist insanity. He was a sponsor of SB 892, a religious freedom bill of sorts aimed at deferring to the “deeply held faith” of Christian adoption agencies, hoping that they might turn away prospective same sex couples looking to adopt. Perry insisted that the legislation must exist, or Christian religious organizations would ignore the various things Jesus spoke of helping children if it didn’t get passed, saying:
“This bill is not a license to discriminate. Rather, it is a license to participate.”
Based off of a lot of his other quotes and actions, we’re calling bulls***.
Now, where Charles Perry has definitely stepped up his game is in his anti-immigrant fervor. One of the bigger state level battles going on right now is over Texas’ anti-immigrant law SB 4, which would ban sanctuary cities from existing within the state. Perry has not only voted for this xenophobic nightmare of a piece of legislation (using the word “legislation” loosely), but he has defended it by claiming it “upholds the rule of law”. Considering the constitutionality of the bill has been questioned because of how it empowers Texas law enforcement to racially profile people to enforce it, that’s a really interesting perspective.
Charles Perry has been re-elected through 2020, now, so we’ll be keeping an eye on him for a while, it seems.