The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a case brought by parents in Maryland who want to opt their children out of classes that include LGBTQ+ content.
They say the reading material violates their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion.
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The group of Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Ukrainian Orthodox parents first filed suit in 2023 after an opt-out provision for a literacy class was dropped by Montgomery County Public Schools.
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Parents sued for a preliminary injunction to restore the opt-out option, but the judge denied the request, saying the challenge was unlikely to succeed because parents couldn’t show “that the no-opt-out policy burdens their religious exercise.”
The high court agreed to hear the case as gender and sexuality take a central role in the second Trump administration, and debates over LGBTQ+ content in libraries and transgender athletes in schools continue to roil local school districts and Congress.
The group of parents are represented in the Supreme Court challenge by Becket, a non-profit institute dedicated to religious liberty issues. The group has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ litigation.
The school system’s decision to disallow opt-outs was “cramming down controversial gender ideology” to three-year-old pupils, said Becket attorney Eric Baxter in a statement.
“The Court must make clear: Parents, not the state, should be the ones deciding how and when to introduce their children to sensitive issues about gender and sexuality,” Baxter said.
LGBTQ+-related curricula and lessons apply only to students in Montgomery County’s middle and high schools.
The district-wide policy in the state’s largest school district covers books and lessons in an English language arts curriculum newly diversified in 2023. The curriculum addresses issues like race, religion, and ethnicity, and includes LGBTQ+ perspectives.
LGBTQ+ content includes storybook titles like “Pride Puppy,” about a gay pride parade, and “Love, Violet,” about a girl who has feelings for a female classmate.
The decision to drop the opt-out provision inspired protests organized by a coalition of religious groups. Hundreds turned out for demonstrations that characterized the curriculum as LGBTQ+ “indoctrination.”
“We have the religious right to raise our kids based on the Bible,” Soloman Hailemariam, a father of four Montgomery County schools students, told far-right news site The Daily Signal at a July 2023 rally.
Parents aligned with the Maryland schools’ inclusive curriculum turned out in force, as well.
“We’re here not so much to counter the protest, but to show support for the Board of Education and what they’re doing, and show the queer kids that go to school here that they are supported,” said John Zittrauer, a counter-protester at the July 20 demonstration.
The Supreme Court has been sympathetic to religious liberty plaintiffs in several recent cases, including 303 Creative v. Elenis, which allowed a graphic designer to discriminate against a same-sex couple, and a high school football coach who prayed at midfield after a game.
In July, a Trump-appointed judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that a DC school must recognize a chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), an organization that requires its leadership to oppose same-sex marriage.
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