On paper, the state of Maryland provides some of the strongest protections for parental rights in the country. State law requires public school systems to “provide an opportunity for parents/guardians to view instructional materials to be used in the teaching of family life and human sexuality objectives” and provide an opportunity for parents to opt their children out of such instruction.
But one school district in the state has seemingly ignored this law, choosing instead to prioritize its own political agenda. Now, parents from many different backgrounds are standing up for their rights.
Montgomery County rolls out books promoting radical gender ideology
In November 2022, the Montgomery County School Board announced its approval of “over 22 LGBTQ+-inclusive texts for use in the classroom.” Some of the books promoting radical gender ideology are meant to be used in classrooms with children as young as three and four years old.
One book approved for use in pre-K classrooms encourages students to look for images of items they might see at an LGBT “pride parade” using a word list. The list includes “leather,” a “[drag] king,” a “[drag] queen,” a “lip ring,” and “Marsha P. Johnson,” an LGBT activist and drag queen.
Another book approved for kindergarten through fifth grade describes a young girl dreaming of “galloping off” with another girl who makes her “heart skip.” The accompanying guide encourages teachers to “acknowledg[e] how uncomfortable we might [be] … when we feel our heart beating ‘thumpity thump’ & how hard it can be [to] talk about our feelings with someone that we don’t just ‘like’ but we ‘like like.’”
And a third book approved for fifth graders tells students that they should be the “teacher” when it comes to so-called “gender transitions.” If students say that sex is determined by body parts, teachers are instructed to tell them that doctors simply “make a guess about our gender” when we are born.
“Sometimes they’re right, and sometimes they’re wrong,” the teachers’ guide says to tell the children. “Our body parts do not decide our gender. Our gender comes from inside—we might feel different than what people tell us we are. We know ourselves best.”
Parents told they can no longer opt their children out
Not only do these books advocate for radical gender ideology, but they also include topics that many parents believe are inappropriate for young children. When the books were first introduced in March 2023, the Montgomery County School Board said it would notify parents when the books were being taught and allow them to opt their children out.
But the board abruptly reversed course and announced it would no longer inform parents when the books were taught, let alone allow them to opt their children out.
This decision to exclude parents from important decisions about their children’s education violated both Maryland law and the U.S. Constitution, but the school board seemingly did not care. One board member defended the decision by saying that opting children out because the books “offend[] your religious rights or your family values or your core beliefs is just telling [your] kid, ‘Here’s another reason to hate another person.’”
But the fact is that there is nothing hateful about the truths that God created each of us either male or female, that sex cannot be changed, and that marriage is between one man and one woman. Living by these truths is much more loving than living by lies.
After the school district announced the sudden policy change and refused to accommodate dissenting parents, a diverse coalition of moms and dads from various religious backgrounds filed a lawsuit against the board for violating their constitutional right to direct the upbringing and education of their children. The parents are represented by Becket, a nonprofit legal institute dedicated to religious freedom.
Unfortunately, a federal district court and a federal appellate court both ruled in favor of the school board. Becket appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and in January 2025, the Court agreed to hear the case, Mahmoud v. Taylor.
Protecting parental rights
Alliance Defending Freedom will be filing a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the parents’ claims in this case because we understand the importance of protecting parental rights. In fact, we’ve represented a Georgia teacher and parent in a similar case involving books pushing LGBT ideology.
Lindsey Barr served as a full-time teacher at Bryan County Schools in Georgia for 10 years, and in January 2022, she was hired as a substitute teacher. During that year, she mostly subbed at McAllister Elementary School, where two of her children attended.
At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, she learned of a new book depicting same-sex couples expecting children that was going to be read to every class. As a devout Christian, Lindsey believes that marriage is between one man and one woman, and she didn’t want her young children to be read a book that contradicted this deeply held religious belief.
Lindsey asked the school principal to let her excuse her children from this reading time. The next day, she was unable to access the Bryan County Schools portal she used to accept substitute teaching assignments. And five days later, the school told her that they had terminated her ability to substitute at any Bryan County school.
ADF filed a lawsuit on Lindsey’s behalf, and in April 2023, the school district agreed to reinstate Lindsey and pay $181,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees. District officials publicly expressed regret for their actions and encouraged Lindsey to participate in her children’s education in the future.
While Lindsey’s victory is an important one for parental rights, the Mahmoud case illustrates that the work to protect parental rights is far from over. The Supreme Court now has a decisive opportunity to clarify that parents have the right to make informed decisions about whether their children are exposed to controversial materials about gender and sexuality at school.
