Maryland, My Maryland

At JTN, Greg Piper reports Wealthy Washington D.C. suburb's no-exception LGBTQ curriculum faces headwinds at Supreme Court, "Major religious groups, half the states and top legal scholars of religious liberty unite against Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools, which refuses to notify parents when "Pride storybooks" are taught or let young kids opt out."

Friend-of-the-court briefs deluged the Supreme Court last week asking it to resolve a circuit split on parental rights in public education worsened by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools does not burden parents' free exercise of religion by not notifying them of LGBTQ curricula or allow opt-outs.

"This outpouring of diverse support shows that parents, not the government, should have the final say on how their kids are introduced to complex topics of gender and sexuality," senior counsel Eric Baxter of religious liberty law firm Becket, which filed the SCOTUS petition last month on behalf of Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox parents, wrote in an X thread on the briefs.

The wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., exposed children as young as 3 to "Pride storybooks" with sex workers, kink, drag, gender transitions and elementary-age same-sex romance, provoking fierce opposition from parents. The Council on American-Islamic Relations took a leading role organizing opposition and protests, in a rare break with Democrats and the ACLU.

Public records requests and litigation revealed that the purported concern behind the district's sudden decision a year and half ago to stop notification and opt-outs – logistical difficulty – was not reflected in internal communications, which instead trained teachers how to challenge students' beliefs and counter parental objections.

Another group of MCPS parents filed a brief saying the district has denied their opt-out requests, leaving their children at risk of instruction on "LGBTQ+ issues in what they believe is an inappropriate manner considering their children’s ages, personalities, and circumstances."

Most of the parents also believe the district's purpose is to "normalize and valorize alternative sexual behavior" in violation of their religious beliefs, they said.

So far, no sign of this in Calvert County. But then, Gabby is only in pre-K.