Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Case On Parental Rights And LGBT Content In Schools
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case involving parents’ right to opt their children out of LGBT content pertaining to sexuality and gender.
Parents in Maryland from differing faith backgrounds, including Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians, filed a lawsuit in 2023 after they were denied the right to opt their children out of lessons concerning 20 books on so-called “inclusivity” picked by the Montgomery County Board of Education.
After the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the parents, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit law firm representing the parents, appealed to the Supreme Court. On Friday, the high court agreed to hear the case.
“Cramming down controversial gender ideology on three-year-olds without their parents’ permission is an affront to our nation’s traditions, parental rights, and basic human decency,” Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, said in a statement sent to The Daily Wire. “The Court must make clear: parents, not the state, should be the ones deciding how and when to introduce their children to sensitive issues about gender and sexuality.”
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Becket’s website says the Montgomery County Board of Education announced over 20 new “inclusivity” books for its pre-K through eighth grade classrooms in the fall of 2022. Initially, parents were assured that they would be notified when the books were read and could opt their children out.
However, the school board in March 2023 said their policy changed; parents were no longer going to be notified about the LGBT content nor would they be permitted to opt out their children. One board member even claimed that a parent opting their child out of the content because it “offends your religious rights or your family values or your core beliefs is just telling [your] kid, ‘Here’s another reason to hate another person.’”
The books in question discuss pride parades, gender transitions, and pronoun preferences for children, according to Becket. One book for three- and four-year-olds asks kids to search for images from a word list that includes “intersex flag,” “[drag] queen,” “underwear,” “leather,” and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker.