In a case that shows the U.S Supreme Court’s increasing bias in the direction of religious freedom, the justices Friday decided 6-3 in favor of parents who wanted to opt their children out of elementary school classes on LGBTQ-themed books. The ruling requires Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools to permit opt-outs based on religion, overruling a policy that had banned such exemptions.
The lawsuit, filed by a group of Catholic, Muslim and Ukrainian Orthodox parents as well as by a parent activist organization named Kids First had objected to the school board’s 2022 action to add LGBTQ-friendly storybooks to classrooms from pre-K through 5th grade. The parents said that the withholding from them the ability to keep their children from being exposed to such content infringed on their First Amendment rights to the free exercise of religion.
The books under controversy are Pride Puppy, an alphabet book based on a Pride parade; Love, Violet, which is a story about a girl having a crush on her female classmate; Born Ready, that is a story about a trans boy and Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, about a same-sex wedding.
Maryland Board of Education had considered opt outs before?
The Maryland Board of Education in Montgomery County, state’s largest school system, had originally indicated opt-outs would be allowed but then changed its mind. It says that would be logistically impossible to manage individual exemptions.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor cautioned that the decision can even lead to confusion in public schools nationwide. “With this country’s diverse array of religious faiths, interactions in schools could number in the tens of thousands and run afoul of parental values,” she wrote. “This ruling invites an unworkable system of piecemeal education.”
The case is the latest in a series of recent Supreme Court rulings upholding religious rights, frequently in conflict with LGBTQ rights and school policy.
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