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By Dave Holman

I am writing this letter out of frustration with the Guilford Board of Education.

Does everyone know who Tony Ferraiolo is? Mr. Ferraiolo is a trans man who is an outspoken activist for gender affirming care for children in Connecticut. Recently, Project Veritas filmed Mr. Ferraiolo and Reverend Aaron Miller of Middletown, counseling a 12-year-old girl on how to transition and obtain a chest binder without her parent’s knowledge or consent. A second Project Veritas video exposed how a Connecticut gender dysphoric teen committed suicide after consulting with Reverend Miller. So, what do these videos have to do with Guilford?

In the 2022 – 2023 school year, Mr. Ferraiolo was hired by the Guilford Public School system to do transgender sensitivity training in the Cox elementary school and the Adams middle school. In 2023, Mr. Ferraiolo served as co Grand Marshall for the initial Guilford Pride event held on the Guilford Green, and his company, Health Care Advocates International (HCAI) has been a major sponsor of this event ever since. This year HCAI offered free binders at this event.

Beginning on July 26, 2025, and ending on August 11th, I sent multiple emails to the Guilford Board of Education, suggesting that at their August 11th regular Board of Education meeting, they discuss, debate, and go on the public record, regarding the need to issue an official statement regarding Mr. Ferraiolo, and “gender affirming care” in Guilford Public Schools going forward. Specifically, I suggested that the Guilford BOE issue an immediate and unambiguous statement acknowledging that Guilford Public Schools had hired Mr. Ferraiolo to do transgender sensitivity training in Guilford grammar and middle schools, apologizing for hiring him, and stating clearly that going forward, Guilford Public Schools would no longer be an advocate for “gender affirming care” in children under 19, except for providing psychological counseling for children experiencing gender dysphoria.

My thought was that by issuing such a statement, Guilford Public Schools would get ahead of this issue (not many people are aware of the Project Veritas video or that Tony Ferraiolo was employed by Guilford Public Schools), comply with recent federal guidelines regarding “gender affirming care”, and fall in line with large providers of “gender affirming care” (chemical, hormonal, and medical intervention) in Connecticut like Yale New Haven Hospital and Connecticut Children’s Hospital who recently issued statements declaring that they will no longer be providing “gender affirming care to children under 19 except for psychological counseling.

I did receive a response from the Chairman of the Guilford BOE Kathleen Balestracci on August 6th in which she said, “We will not be issuing any such statement. You, and the sources you cite, continue to misrepresent and misinform others about how Guilford Public Schools supports and educates our students, and how the district provides professional development to our staff so that they, within best practice guidelines, can support our students.” This was the first time she had responded to me since November of 2023, despite scores of emails I have sent to her, so I guess this issue hit a nerve.

I also heard back from one other member of Guilford BOE, Dr. Richard Hersh on August 8th, a former college president at two different universities and most recently a professor at Yale University, whom I met with for four hours recently at his condo at his request. I thought we had opened a dialogue, but his response left no doubt that he would not support discussing my suggestion on the record at the August 11th Guilford BOE meeting. Specifically, he said, “Our civil conversation recently notwithstanding, we agreed on little. I made clear that for me most of your assertions and conclusions, not to mention what comes across as character assassinations, are based on spurious references and egregious lack of facts. I mentioned that I was unsure whether your erroneous conclusions on the issues you have raised with the BOE are willful and/or terribly misinformed but whatever the reason they are in my view wrong and equally important unfair … For these reasons, I choose not to respond to your damning missives, including the ones you most recently sent to us. I agree with Dr. Balestracci’s and Dr. Freeman’s responses to you, and I do not appreciate you trying to enlist me specifically in your personal agenda.” So much for opening a dialogue or being transparent.

At their August 11th BOE meeting, not one of the nine members of the Guilford Board of Education mentioned my multiple emails to them requesting that they discuss and vote on issuing an official statement acknowledging that Guilford Public Schools did indeed hire Tony Ferraiolo to do transgender sensitivity training in Guilford grammar and middle schools, apologizing for doing so in light of the revelations made in the Project Veritas tapes, and stating definitively that Guilford Public Schools will discontinue advocating for “gender affirming care” for children under 19 other than psychological counseling going forward. They did not put it on the BOE agenda for their August 11th meeting, they did not bring it up under correspondence, and they did not bring it up under new business. They arrogantly think that they know better than we do, and are banking on these revelations not seeing the light of day. But we, the citizens and parents of Guilford are not as uninformed as they think we are.

Dave Holman is a resident of Guilford, Connecticut

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