A group of parents from different faiths is asking the Supreme Court to hear their case against a Maryland school board that won’t allow elementary-age kids to opt out of reading storybooks on gender transitioning and LGBTQ issues.
The Montgomery County Board of Education in 2022 had storybooks enter the school curriculum that celebrate pronouns, pride parades and gender transitioning. At the time, parents were given notice and told they could opt out for their children.
But in 2023, the notice and the ability to opt out were removed by the school board, prompting parents to sue in federal court over First Amendment concerns, asking the court to require the opt-out option.
The parents argue that their free exercise of religion is interrupted when there is no option to remove their children from the book readings.
The district court rejected their request for an injunction, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, reasoning there’s no impact on the parents’ religious practices based on a lack of opt-out options in public schooling.
“The First Amendment ’lies at the heart of our pluralistic society.’ It cannot do its work if free-exercise rights must be sacrificed by all who attend the nation’s public schools,” read the parents’ petition to the Supreme Court, filed Thursday. “New government-imposed orthodoxy about what children are ’supposed’ to think about gender and sexuality is not a constitutional basis to sideline a child’s own parents. The Court should grant review.”
It would take four justices to vote in favor of hearing the case for oral arguments to be granted in the court’s next term, which begins in October.
A spokesperson for the Montgomery County school board said it won’t comment on pending litigation.
“Parents shouldn’t have to take a back seat to anyone when it comes to introducing their children to complex and sensitive issues around gender and sexuality,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, a religious liberty law firm representing the parents.
“Nearly every state requires parental consent before high schoolers can attend sex-ed. Parents should have the right to excuse their elementary school children when related instruction is introduced during story hour,” Mr. Baxter said.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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