The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Mahmoud v. Taylor on Tuesday, April 22, marking a key step in Maryland parents’ ongoing effort to shield their young children from mandatory participation in LGBT-themed, sexually explicit storybook reading sessions in elementary schools.
Parents represented in the case want the option to pull their kids out of these story hours, which promote LGBT books containing sexually explicit content. The question presented, per court documents, is “whether a public school’s decision to compel children to participate in instruction that violates their parents’ sincere religious convictions — without notice or an opportunity to opt out — constitutes a cognizable burden under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
The Free Exercise Clause protects individuals from government actions that substantially burden their religious practices. And according to concerned Maryland parents and The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, this has been violated.
The parents’ petition represented by Becket, reads: “The First Amendment ‘lies at the heart of our pluralistic society.’ It cannot do its work if free-exercise rights must be sacrificed by all who attend the nation’s public schools. 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.”
According to The Washington Times, “The Montgomery County Board of Education rolled out an ‘inclusivity’ reading program in 2022 to celebrate pronouns, pride parades and gender transitioning for pre-K through fifth-grade students. At the time, parents in the liberal Washington suburb were given notice and told they could opt their children out of the story time. That changed in 2023 when the board reversed the notification policy.”
In a statement, Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, explained how “forcing toddlers to learn about drag queens and pride parades without their parents knowing is as unconstitutional as it is unnecessary.” Ultimately, “Our nation has a long tradition of respecting parents’ right to decide when and how to introduce their children to such sensitive topics, and we are confident the Court will uphold that enduring freedom here.”
Adding to this, Grace Morrison, board member of Kids First, said, “Montgomery County is pushing inappropriate gender theory on our children all while neglecting the core education they need to succeed. We pray the Supreme Court puts a stop to this nonsense once and for all and restores parents’ right to raise their own children according to their beliefs.”
Becket highlighted how one of the books in question is called “Pride Puppy.” Geared toward three- to four-year-olds, this book promotes pride parades and asks the kids reading it to locate certain items on the pages, such as an “intersex flag,” “drag queen,” “underwear” and “leather.” “Another book,” Becket added, “advocates a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to ‘make sense.’ Teachers are instructed to say doctors only ‘guess’ when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway.” These are the books that “the School Board revoked notice and opt-outs for … which violates Maryland law, the Board’s policies, and the advice of its own elementary school principals.”
The parents’ petition also highlights the title, “Love, Violet,” which is designed for Kindergarten through Grade 5 and “is about a same-sex playground romance.” They added, “Along with the storybooks, the Board issued guidance that directs teachers to emphasize that ‘not everyone is a boy or girl’ and that ‘[s]ome people identify with both, sometimes one more than the other and sometimes neither,’” — instructions that ultimately encourage young students to use “preferred” pronouns.
While oral arguments are this week, a decision is expected to be reached by the end of June. Notably, the backdrop to this battle is the ongoing effort from the Trump administration to root out initiatives that promote both LGBT and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideas — increasingly prominent in schools in recent years.
In a comment to The Washington Stand, Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, explained, “This case is an important opportunity to affirm parental rights in their children’s education at school.” Ultimately, she concluded, “We can pray that the court will reject the notion that schools can discuss matters of human sexuality with young children or any children by invoking ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’”
