The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday Maryland parents’ challenge to a ban on opting their young children out of storybook readings about pride parades, gender transitions and drag queens.
The predominantly Muslim and Christian parents behind the case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, argue the Montgomery County Board of Education is infringing on their free exercise rights under the First Amendment.
“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 parents, backed by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, wrote in their petition.
Books elementary school teachers read to students include “Pride Puppy,” which asks students to look for images of items like “underwear” and the name of a “controversial LGBTQ activist and sex worker,” and “Intersection Allies,” which asks students to consider questions like what it means to be transgender, according to court documents.
While the school board initially allowed parents with religious objections to opt their children out of the program, it later changed its decision and declined to even offer parental notice.
Opt-outs are available for sex ed classes mandated in high school, yet the district denies opt-outs for the “LGBTQ-inclusive” storybooks it required for elementary students in just 2022, according to parents’ petition. The parents sued in May 2023.