If you ever wonder why the literacy rate of American public school students keeps falling, take a peek at the schools’ English curriculums. Last year, the school board of Montgomery County, Maryland, decided that the books in the English language arts curriculum were “not sufficiently representative because they did not include LGBTQ characters.” So the school board turned to the “experts.”
Four reading specialists, two instructional specialists, and two rounds of evaluation later, the school board added multiple storybooks bursting with radical gender ideology to the pre-K–5 English curriculum. But now the school board has a lawsuit on its hands.
When parents of various faiths asked to opt their children out of the LGBTQ storybooks for religious reasons, the school board denied their requests. Three sets of parents filed a lawsuit — Mahmoud v. McKnight — against the school board for violating their rights to religious freedom. Unfortunately, the parents are losing — for now.
On March 22, the school board stated that it would require teachers to give notice and offer opt-outs from curriculums involving topics of family life and sexuality. The next day, it reversed its decision, eliminating both parental notice and parental opt-outs from the LGBTQ storybooks beginning Aug. 28, 2023.
There’s an agenda behind the elimination — the school board openly claims that its instruction “seeks to ‘[d]isrupt’ the child’s ‘either/or thinking’ on gender and sexuality.” The school board taught teachers how to discuss the LGBTQ storybooks, instructing them to frame any disagreement with radical gender theory as “hurtful.” Understandably, parents got upset. So did some teachers and several principals. (RELATED: Almost Everything Is in the Hands of Teachers)
“Teachers felt ‘discomfort’ with these books, and found the teaching guides to be ‘dismissive of religious beliefs’ and ‘shaming’ to children,” explains the emergency brief filed by Becket Law, the religious liberty firm representing the parents in their suit against the school board. Several school principals in the Montgomery County school district protested the implementation of the LGBTQ storybooks, arguing that the books are “not appropriate for the intended age.” A quick look at the books confirms the principals’ judgment, though the school board doesn’t see a problem.
The book Pride Puppy!, part of the pre-K and kindergarten curriculum, “us[es] the letters of the alphabet to illustrate what a child might see at a pride parade,” according to the court’s description. The court apparently does not find it relevant to the parents’ objection that “underwear,” “intersex flag,” “drag queen,” and “leather” are featured words in a book taught to 5-year-old children.
The series of LGBTQ storybooks also features transgenderism with Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Name Penelope — a story about a transgender elementary-school child — and My Rainbow, which is about a mom who makes “a rainbow-colored wig for her transgender child.” Other storybooks feature gay romantic relationships between young children. Some storybooks don’t even pretend to have a plot — Intersection Allies: We Make Room for All showcases “nine characters who proudly describe themselves and their diverse backgrounds” and “connects each character’s story to the collective struggle for justice.” Subtle.
When the storybooks were added to the curriculum, Muslim, Catholic, and Ukrainian Orthodox parents — among others — sought to opt their children out of story hour so that their children would not be exposed to ideologies contradictory to their religious beliefs. Given the school board’s explicit insistence that the storybooks were introduced to “‘[d]isrupt’ the child’s ‘either/or thinking’ on gender and sexuality,” the parents expressed concern that students would learn about mature topics without parental guidance and the framework of familial faith traditions.
When parents voiced these concerns, school board members accused parents of “promoting ‘hate’ and ‘a dehumanizing form of erasure,’” in addition to “comparing them to ‘white supremacists’ and ‘xenophobes,’” reports Becket Law. The firm’s emergency brief explains that the plaintiffs, “who are Muslims, Christians, and Jews, … seek to ensure that their children are mature enough to process these issues within their respective religious traditions.”
“Montgomery County is waging a shameless campaign on the rights of parents and the innocence of children,” Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, told The American Spectator. “Kids deserve to have their parents decide when and how they are introduced to sensitive issues like gender identity, gender transitioning, and human sexuality.”
The court ruled against the parents and denied that the school board has violated the First Amendment rights of the plaintiffs. Last week, the plaintiffs filed seeking emergency relief from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“We’re asking the Fourth Circuit to step in and immediately block the Board’s no-notice, no-opt-out policy because we should let parents parent, and kids be kids,” Baxter told The American Spectator.
The good news is that the parents have Becket Law — notable for its numerous victories in free-exercise cases — in their corner. The emergency brief drafted by Becket lays out the vast extent of judicial precedent in favor of the parents’ case, citing decades of religious-liberty jurisprudence to form a watertight argument.
The bad news is that public education has been totally absorbed into the Left’s project of cultural Marxism. Yes, parents should be able to opt their child out of LGBTQ propaganda in the classroom, but radical gender ideology doesn’t belong in the classroom in the first place — and it most especially doesn’t belong in elementary school.
When someone tells you who they are, believe them. When a school board tells you that equity in the classroom requires that your 4-year-old learn why “leather” and “underwear” can be found at a Pride parade, believe them. There are no half measures for the LGBTQ agenda, as revealed by the school board’s opposition to the opt-out option. (Don’t forget: Shielding your young child from sexual content by opting them out of the curriculum is, in the words of a Montgomery County school board member, “just telling [your] kid, ‘Here’s another reason to hate another person.’”)
In the midst of the perpetual crusade for diversity, equity, and inclusion, claims of parental rights — like the right to control the education of your child — will always lose out to LGBTQ rights. The continual trampling of parental roles and responsibilities isn’t diverse, equitable, or inclusive, but that doesn’t matter. It’s not hypocrisy; it’s hierarchy.
The parents in Mahmoud v. McKnight may win the ability to pull their children out of class during LGBTQ story hour, but they would be naïve to think that a victory in court will safeguard the education of their children. The problem runs far deeper — straight to the heart of our civilization.
Mary Frances Myler is a writer from Traverse City, Michigan. You can follow her on Twitter @mfmyler.
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