SCOTUS Upholds Religious Freedom in LGBT Curriculum Case

On paper, the state of Maryland provides some of the strongest protections for parental notice and opt-out 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 to 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 right to direct their children’s religious development.

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 hostile to the religious beliefs of many parents, they also include topics that many parents believe are not age-appropriate 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 and religious upbringing 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.

A major Supreme Court victory

After the school district announced the sudden policy change and refused to give parents notice or the opportunity to opt out of the ideological instruction, a diverse coalition of moms and dads from various religious backgrounds filed a lawsuit against the board for violating their constitutional right to free exercise of their religion and to direct the religious upbringing 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. Alliance Defending Freedom filed an amicus brief in support of the parents.

In June 2025, the Supreme Court issued a strong opinion for religious liberty, affirming that schools must provide notice and opt-out to parents for instruction that “convey[s] a particular viewpoint about same-sex marriage and gender” and disparages contrary religious beliefs as “hateful.”

“A classroom environment that is welcoming to all students is something to be commended, but such an environment cannot be achieved through hostility toward the religious beliefs of students and their parents,” the court wrote in its opinion.

Protecting religious freedom preserves parental rights

ADF filed a brief in support of the parents in this case because we understand the importance of religious liberty and parents’ right to direct their children’s religious development. 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 as a parent, 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.

Lindsey’s victory was an important victory for parental rights, and the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud makes it clear that parents do, indeed, have choices about what their children are taught in the public-school setting.

Parents cannot be forced to violate their religious beliefs in exchange for a public education for their children. As the Supreme Court explained, it “is both insulting and legally unsound to tell parents that they must abstain from public education in order to raise their children in their religious faiths, when alternatives can be prohibitively expensive and they already contribute to financing the public schools.” Parents’ rights don’t end at the classroom door.