Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of parents who objected to LGBTQ-themed books that a Maryland county approved for use in elementary school classrooms.
In a 6–3 vote, the court backed the parents’ claim that the Montgomery County Board of Education’s decision not to allow an opt-out option for their children violated their religious rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects religious expression.
“The board’s introduction of the ‘LGBTQ+ inclusive’ storybooks, along with its decision to withhold opt-outs, places an unconstitutional burden on the parents’ rights to the free exercise of their religion,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court.
The logic of the majority opinion seems to sweep quite widely, allowing parents with religious objections to demand that their children not be instructed about gay and transgender themes but also about many other topics.
“The result will be chaos for this nation’s public schools,” liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissenting opinion. “Given the great diversity of religious beliefs in this country, countless interactions that occur every day in public schools might expose children to messages that conflict with a parents’ beliefs,” she added.
The dispute arose in 2022 when the school board in the diverse county just outside Washington revised its English language arts curriculum. The board determined that it wanted more storybooks to feature LGBTQ elements to better reflect some of the families who live in the area.
The school board said that although the books are in classrooms and available for children to pick up, teachers are not required to use them in class.
Plaintiffs include Tamer Mahmoud and Enas Barakat, a Muslim couple who have a son in elementary school. Members of the Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches also sued, as did a parent group called Kids First that has members of various faiths.
They said they had a right to protect their children from being taught content that conflicts with their religious beliefs by expressing support for same-sex relationships and transgender rights.
The Supreme Court has in the past backed religious rights in cases involving conflicting arguments made by LGBTQ rights advocates. In 2023, the court ruled in favor of a Christian web designer who refused to work on same-sex weddings.
In earlier cases, parents unsuccessfully challenged storybooks about wizards and giants along with course materials on yoga, evolution, and women working outside the home.
Under Justice Alito’s reasoning, legal experts said, those lawsuits might now succeed.