The Trump Justice Department is siding with parents at the Supreme Court challenging a Maryland public school district’s attempt to mandate LGBTQ-friendly books to children in elementary schools.
In a filing this week, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said Montgomery County Board of Education’s decision not to allow parents to opt their children out of certain reading material interferes with First Amendment rights under the freedom of religion.
The books at the center of the conflict relate to gender transitioning, Pride parades and other LGBTQ issues. One of them, titled “Pride Puppy,” tells preschool-age pupils to find images related to “drag queen,” “intersex flag,” “leather” and “underwear” as well as the name of a “celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker.”
Another book at issue, “Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope,” takes the position that a child knows best about gender transitioning.
The school district previously gave parents notice of the books that would be read, and permitted them to op their children out if the themes conflicted with the family’s religious views.
The board later reversed that policy, declining to give parents notice or an opt-out option.
“Under that policy, parents can respect their religious obligations vis-a-vis their children only by forgoing the benefit of a free public education, since the board has declined to give notice before the storybooks will be used and refuses to permit opt-outs,” Ms. Harris wrote in her filing on Monday. “That is textbook interference with the free exercise of religion.”
While high school-age students can opt out, elementary age and children as young as 3 can’t, according to the law firm representing the parents challenging the policy.
The school board rolled out the school curriculum in the fall of 2022 that celebrates pronouns, pride parades and gender transitioning, including the “inclusivity” reading program for students from prekindergarten through fifth grade.
In 2023, the board moved to drop the opt-out option.
The group of parents from different faiths — Muslim, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish — argued that the school board was infringing on their free exercise of religion since there is no option to opt their child out of storytime.
A lower court ruled against the parents, reasoning that students’ ability to hear other viewpoints doesn’t interfere with the exercise of religion.
The appeal is set to be argued before the justices on April 22.
A ruling is expected by the end of June.
A spokesperson from the Montgomery County Board of Education didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the Justice Department’s filing on behalf of the parents.
The board, in its own filing, argued the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals got it right that the parents’ religion isn’t violated and noted that Montgomery County Public Schools is Maryland’s largest school district, serving more than 160,000 students.
“In recent years, the school district has worked to change that by incorporating new books to better represent MCPS students and families. These books now include characters, families and historical figures from a range of cultural, racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds,” the filing read.
• Former Washington Times reporter Mark A. Kellner contributed to this report.
