Maryland Parents Seek Order to Block LGBTQ Education Requirement
ROCKVILLE, Md. — Parents of Montgomery County, Maryland, elementary school students are suing their local school board over a new curriculum that features LGBTQ characters in books.
The parents say the school board neglected to give them an opt-out choice, which they say violates their First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
The school system informed parents in March they no longer would receive advance notice when the books are used by teachers and that they could not isolate their children from the classroom instruction with them.
A school policy revision this year means the books can now be used to teach children from kindergarten through fifth grade.
The complaint filed last week by three sets of parents in U.S. District Court in Maryland accuses the school board of violating state law and its own policy on protecting religious freedom. It also says the kind of education mentioned in the six “Pride” storybooks is offensive to many parents of different faiths.
“They are united in the conviction that the Pride storybooks are age-inappropriate and inconsistent with their religious beliefs and practices and their child-raising philosophies,” the lawsuit says.
“For example, one book invites 3- and 4-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,’” it says.
Until the policy revision in January, Montgomery County schools allowed families to opt-out of education that advocated for tolerance of LGBTQ concerns. The revision responded to pleas from LGBTQ advocates who asked for more diversity in education.
One of the books is about a girl who wants to give a valentine to another girl in her class who is described as a possible love interest. A second one tells the story of a mother making a rainbow wig for her transgender daughter.
The lawsuit says the school system is violating a state law that requires opt-out when education focuses on gender and sexuality. The parents are not asking that the books be removed from the curriculum, only that they should be allowed to exclude their children from LGBTQ education that uses them.
They are asking the federal court to order the school system to give parents an opt-out choice.
The school board and superintendent say the parents have misinterpreted the state law. They say opt-out is required only when the instruction touches on sex in health education.
The controversial books are part of the language arts program, which means they are exempt from the state law, according to school officials.
Jessica Baxter, a spokesperson for the Montgomery County Public Schools, told The Well News, “We cannot comment due to pending litigation.”
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