‘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,’ Becket Fund attorney Eric Baxter said.
(LifeSiteNews) –– The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether parents can opt their children out of reading storybooks that push one-sided ideology on gender and sexuality.
The concerned parents first filed a lawsuit in May 2023 against Maryland’s largest, wealthiest school district seeking to determine whether they “have the right to opt their children out of classroom instruction regarding family life and human sexuality.”
A federal judge ruled at the time that the school board was not required to provide an opt-out provision. That ruling was later upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
“In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Montgomery County, Maryland Board of Education took away parental notice and opt-outs for storybooks that celebrate gender transitioning, pride parades, and pronoun preferences with kids as young as three and four,” explained a statement from the Becket Fund, the attorney group representing a coalition of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish parents.
According to the original complaint, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) “claims authority to introduce pre-K and elementary school kids to certain books (the ‘Pride Storybooks’) that promote one-sided transgender ideology, encourage gender transitioning, and focus excessively on romantic infatuation – with no parental notification or opportunity to opt out.”
“One book invites three- and four-year-olds to look for images of things they might find at a pride parade, including an ‘intersex (flag),’ a ‘(drag) king’ and ‘(drag) queen,’ ‘leather,’ ‘underwear,’ and an image of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker, ‘Marsha P. Johnson,’” the legal filing noted.
‘Pride Puppy!’ intended for 3-4-year-olds/Screenshot
It cites another for fifth graders that “advocates a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to ‘make sense’ and that students are the best ‘teacher’ on such matters, not parents or other adults.”
Teachers are instructed to say doctors only “guess” when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway.
Cover and interior pages from one of the books cited in the parents’ complaint, titled ‘Born Ready: The true story of a boy named Penelope.’/Screenshot
“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,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “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.”
“The School Board has pushed inappropriate gender indoctrination on our children instead of focusing on the fundamental areas of education that they need to thrive,” said Grace Morrison, board member of Kids First, an association of parents and teachers advocating for notice and opt-outs in Montgomery County Schools. “I pray the Supreme Court will stop this injustice, allow parents to raise their children according to their faith, and restore common sense in Maryland once again.”
The high court’s decision to hear the case came just days before President Donald Trump indicated he would sign an executive order ridding the federal government of every vestige of gender ideology, promising to restore the biological reality of two sexes and clearly define male and female.
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States Government that there are only two genders; male and female,” he proclaimed.
The court is expected to hear the case later this spring.
