The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal from parents in suburban Washington who want to pull their children from elementary school classes that use books featuring LGBTQ characters.
FILE - The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)(AP/J. Scott Applewhite) FILE - The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)(AP/J. Scott Applewhite) WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal from parents in suburban Washington who want to pull their children from elementary school classes that use books featuring LGBTQ characters.
The justices will review an appeals court decision that went against parents in Montgomery County, Maryland. The parents claim that the policy violates their constitutional religious rights by not allowing them to opt out of lessons that include the storybooks.
The stories include a family’s attendance at a pride parade, a girl’s introduction to her uncle’s husband-to-be, a prince’s love for a knight amid their battle against a dragon, a girl’s anxiety about giving a valentine to another girl and a transgender boy’s decision to share his gender identity with his family.
The parents argue that public schools can’t force kids to participate in instruction that violates their faith. They point to opt-out provisions in sex education and note that the district originally allowed parents to pull their children when the storybooks were being taught, before abruptly reversing course.
The policy led to protests in 2023. Dozens of parents testified at school board hearings about their religious obligations to keep their impressionable young children from lessons on gender and sexuality that conflicted with their beliefs.
The Washington Post reported in October that two of the books, “Pride Puppy” and “My Rainbow,” were pulled from the school system’s English language arts curriculum.
Lawyers for the school system, in urging the justices to stay out of the case, wrote that the books are a small part of the curriculum and that they “tell everyday tales of characters who experience adventure, confront new emotions, and struggle to make themselves heard.” They touch on the same themes found in classic stories that include Snow White, Cinderella and Peter Pan, the lawyers wrote.
It’s not clear whether the case will be argued in the spring, or not until the court’s new term begins in October.
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New_Housing785 on January 18th, 2025 at 00:32 UTC »
I mean if you want to get into religious beliefs having to be taught in schools how do they teach the Jewish beliefs that abortion is for the health of a woman and absolutely ok? The problem when you start getting into this is you can't discriminate against others religious beliefs once you open that can of worms.
Spire_Citron on January 18th, 2025 at 00:30 UTC »
There have to be some limits on "religious rights." It's not reasonable to say that some groups of people can't be presented in a positive light to your child because of your religious beliefs. Gay people have a right to exist in the world and be represented as part of it. It's less common these days, but religion has certainly historically been used to justify racial divisions. If that is someone's religious beliefs, could they force schools to only provide books with white characters?
carty64 on January 18th, 2025 at 00:22 UTC »
Get ready for at least a decade of a religious "right to discriminate" & "right to not be made aware of things we don't like" being upheld in every possible circumstance.