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Supreme Court will rule on allowing parents to ban students from LGBTQ+ lessons

MCPS parents protest LGBTQIA reading material supreme court building
Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images; Sergii Figurnyi/shutterstock

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(1) Montgomery County parents stage 'Family rights & Religious freedom' demonstration - MARYLAND, UNITED STATES - JULY 20: A group of Montgomery County parents gather outside MCPS Board of Education to protest a policy that doesnât allow students to opt-out of lessons on gender and LGBTQ+ issues during the school board meeting in Maryland, United States on July 20, 2023.

(2) Supreme Court of the United States in Washington DC in a sunny day, USA

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could allow guardians to prohibit students from hearing lessons or using books involving LGBTQ+ identities.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could allow guardians to prohibit students from hearing lessons or using books involving LGBTQ+ identities.

The court voted Friday to hear Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case brought by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty on behalf of several Maryland parents who claimed that their First Amendment rights were somehow violated when Montgomery County Public Schools expanded its collections of books in school classrooms and libraries.

While senior counsel at Becket, Eric Baxter, accused the district of “cramming down controversial gender ideology on three-year-olds," MCPS maintained in its recent opposition filing that "like all other books in the language-arts curriculum, these storybooks impart critical reading skills through engaging, age-appropriate stories."

The district wrote that "reading materials have not always reflected the diversity of the community MCPS serves," so it "worked to change that by incorporating new books to better represent MCPS students and families" starting in the 2022-2023 school year. The books added include "characters, families, and historical figures from a range of cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds."

MCPS also "approved a handful of storybooks featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer characters for use in the language-arts curriculum," emphasizing that the books are available "alongside the many books already in the curriculum that feature heterosexual characters in traditional gender roles."

The district said that "the storybooks are not used in any lessons related to gender and sexuality." The books are instead used for "individual reading, classroom read-alouds, and other educational activities designed to foster and enhance literacy skills."

The district originally allowed parents to remove students from lessons, but reversed the decision in 2023 after a “growing number of opt out requests." It has since created a "careful, public, participatory selection process" for its material, which it said already "welcomes and incorporates parent feedback," and was followed to introduce the books.

“Every court of appeals that has considered the question has held that mere exposure to controversial issues in a public-school curriculum does not burden the free religious exercise of parents or students,” the district wrote. “Parents who choose to send their children to public school are not deprived of their right to freely exercise their religion simply because their children are exposed to curricular materials the parents find offensive.”

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Ryan Adamczeski

Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Her first cover story, "Meet the young transgender teens changing America and the world," has been nominated for Outstanding Print Article at the 36th GLAAD Media Awards. In her free time, Ryan likes watching the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.
Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. Her first cover story, "Meet the young transgender teens changing America and the world," has been nominated for Outstanding Print Article at the 36th GLAAD Media Awards. In her free time, Ryan likes watching the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.