Muslim and Christian parents sue MD school district for removing religious opt-out to LGBT books in K-12 curriculum
The district eliminated an exemption to the LGBT books after discovering that schools 'could not accommodate the growing number of opt-out requests without causing significant disruptions to the classroom environment.'
In Maryland, a group of Christian and Muslim parents are pushing back against LGBT indoctrination within their local K-12 school district.
Led by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the parents recently filed a federal lawsuit against the Montgomery County Board of Education, arguing that required “inclusivity” school books are “age-inappropriate, spiritually and emotionally damaging for kids and inconsistent with their faith.”
The parents are seeking for the district to implement its original plan to have an opt-out option for those with religious objections to the LGBT-themed books. In March, the district revoked its decision to allow a religious exemption for students, claiming: “Individual schools could not accommodate the growing number of opt out requests without causing significant disruptions to the classroom environment and undermining MCPS’s educational mission.”
According to the Becket Fund, “one book tasks three- and four-year-olds to search for images from a word list that includes ‘intersex flag,’ ‘drag queen,’ ‘underwear,’ ‘leather,’ and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker.”
“Another book 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.”
Montgomery County Public Schools Communications Director Christopher Cram told Campus Reform that “there is NO LGBTQ+ curriculum in Montgomery County Public Schools.” Instead, he says there are “inclusive supplemental materials that support standards-based literacy instruction.”
“MCPS teaching and learning must be inclusive and welcoming to all peoples,” he continued. “Students must be able to see themselves in the materials used,” Cram argued, while also acknowledging that there are “vetted, age appropriate texts that … may have characters who are two dads, or two moms.”
MCPS approved K-12 books includes titles like Pride Puppy, Intersection Allies: We Make Room for All, Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope, Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History, and The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets.
Campus Reform has long reported on the use of LGBT curricula at colleges and universities across the country.
[RELATED: Another university is hosting ‘Pride Camps’ for children this summer]
In January, Campus Reform detailed how the University of Miami offered $50,000 in scholarships to students minoring in LGBTQ Studies.
That same month, Campus Reform also reported that a Penn State professor instructed all his students to watch gay pornography in order to uncover their bisexuality.
In June, Campus Reform noted that the University of Maryland would be offering a new course “with the goal of decoupling whiteness from LGBTQ+ studies and decoupling heterosexuality from Black studies.”
Campus Reform contacted the Becket Fund for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
Follow Travis Morgan on X.
