Tensions boiled over in Montgomery County on Tuesday as more than an estimated 1,000 protesters opposed to using LGBTQ teaching materials in local elementary schools clashed with security outside a Rockville meeting of the school board.
Angry parents-rights demonstrators shouted “shame on you” after security officers denied them entry into the Montgomery County Board of Education meeting’s public comment period, where speakers testified about the removal of an opt-out option for pre-K through fifth-grade reading materials covering gay and transgender topics.
A member of the Family Rights for Religious Freedom, the organization that put together Tuesday’s rally, calmed the crowd by saying “This isn’t us.” The crowd heeded his calls and returned to their more common refrains of “education over indoctrination,” “we shall never surrender our children,” and most passionately, “our kids, our rights.”
The same organizer told The Washington Times that parents were upset because building security was letting in an equal number of the opposing pro-LGBTQ counter-demonstrators, who were vastly outnumbered by the parents-rights crowd.
This organizer also said Montgomery County Public Schools altered its audience protocols in response to the rally so that overflow areas normally set aside to accommodate meeting attendees had been closed off.
The emotional rally came in response to the introduction of six books featuring LGBTQ themes to MCPS elementary classrooms, with one for each grade level until fifth grade. The Board of Education passed a no-opt-out policy this spring that will take effect during the 2023-24 academic year.
Tuesday’s rally drew a huge turnout from Black parents, many of whom described themselves as members of the county’s East African immigrant community, with many specifically coming from Ethiopian Orthodox churches.
They were joined by self-professed Muslim, Protestant and evangelical parents and families who all hammered the same point: parents should have a say in what their children learn at publicly funded schools.
“We don’t hate anybody. Every human has rights [and] every human can behave any way that they want,” a man who went by Desta, a county resident and a priest at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church of St. Michael in the Northeast section of the District, told The Times. “But we are taxpayers. They [cannot] use our tax money for what they want. They have to use our tax money for what we want.”
Desta said he learned about the policy change from his teenage children. He said he would pull his 7-year-old child out of the class with LGBTQ materials after his teenagers told him what was in the books.
The rally organizer who spoke with The Times said the primary concern among parents is not just about the books, but the discussion period that comes after the books are read. He said that is when the teachers can start sharing an “agenda” with the students.
Saba Asrate, a mother of two elementary-aged boys, told The Times that she felt that the political class pushes LGBTQ issues, but they don’t actually reflect those values in their personal lives.
“[Hillary] Clinton has one child, she’s married, she’s living [a] fancy life. George Bush has twins, they’re married, they are living a fancy life. And look at the Obamas, the same thing,” Ms. Asrate said. “But when something negative [is] coming out, it’s always targeted [at] poor people.”
A small band of counter-protesters stood near the rally, waving rainbow Pride flags and playing classic rock. The two groups largely stood apart, although some of the rallygoers did begin chanting “shame on you” toward the counter-protesters, causing a handful of police officers to station themselves between the crowds.
John Zittrauer, a counter-protester who is also part of the Rainbow Defense Brigade that helps make sure local drag queen readings can be done smoothly, told The Times that any concern over there being inappropriate sexual content in the books was “misinformation.”
Former Board of Education member Jill Ortman-Fouch said separately that the books are stories that feature LGBTQ characters, they aren’t pushing a particular message.
“People have gay uncles who get married. People have their own parents who get married to the same sex,” Ms. Ortman-Fouch said. “That shouldn’t be offensive to people, because it’s literally the people at PTA night.”
Some of the books MCPS approved in December include “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” by Sarah S. Brannen, “Pride Puppy” by Robin Stevenson, “My Rainbow” by DeShanna and Trinity Neal, “Love, Violet” by Charlotte Sullivan Wild and “Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope” by Jodie Patterson.
Ms. Ortman-Fouch did acknowledge that the “parents’ rights” message is an effective one that’s spread nationally, but she didn’t believe the board would flip its stance on the policy.
MCPS has stated that its policy preventing the opt-out falls under the county’s literacy curriculum. State law only permits parents to withhold their children from classes that teach human growth and sexuality.
A group of Muslim and Christian parents took legal action against that policy last month, arguing that the books do address topics that are covered by the state’s opt-out law.
Ms. Ortman-Fouch doesn’t believe the legal filing will go anywhere. But the parent speakers at the rally didn’t mention the lawsuit as a saving grace for their concerns.
They instead mentioned that three Board of Education members will be up for reelection next year. Their message, which was enthusiastically echoed by the hundreds of parents in attendance: “Vote them out.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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