Maryland parents seek right to opt students out of LGBTQ-themed assignments

Parents in Maryland appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court last week to reinstate their rights to opt their children out of classroom material containing LGBTQ-themed content. In May 2023, a federal judge backed the Montgomery County Public Schools, which refused to allow parents to arrange alternative assignments for their children. Earlier this year, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision. Maryland state law requires teachers to give parental notification when they teach human sexuality and offer parents the option to opt their children out of the assignments. Parents from a wide range of religious faiths including Muslims, Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians expressed outrage over the policy, according to the Becket Fund, a legal firm that focuses on religious liberty issues.

What started the controversy? Beginning in the fall of 2022, the Montgomery County Board of Education required teachers to read LGBTQ-themed storybooks in pre-K through eighth grade classrooms. The school board argued that the books promoted inclusivity while simultaneously discouraging what the board characterized as either/or thinking, according to The Becket Fund. The books encouraged the normalization of gender transitioning, while also containing sexualized themes, according to court documents. At the time, the board allowed any parent to opt his or her child out of content that the parent determined was age-inappropriate, harmful to their children, or portrayed ideas about sex and gender that conflicted with their religious beliefs or sound science. In March 2023, the school board reversed course and opt-outs were no longer permitted, according to court documents. Additionally, teachers were no longer required to notify parents when they were discussing the storybooks, according to The Becket Fund.

Dig Deeper: Read Mary Jackson’s report for WORLD magazine on the fight over sexualized content in classroom material.