Maryland county schools forcing kids into 'extreme' LGTBQ storybook lessons: lawsuit

A group of Maryland parents filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Montgomery County Board of Education for mandating that students from grades pre-K through eight read storybooks that push "extreme ideology" regarding gender identity and sexuality.

Last fall, the school board introduced new "inclusivity" books that promote controversial ideology around transgenderism and focus excessively on children’s romantic feelings. For example, one book tasks 3- and 4-year-olds with searching for images from a word list that includes "intersex flag," "drag queen," "underwear," "leather," and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker.

Another book advocates a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to "make sense"; teachers are instructed to add that doctors only "guess" when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway.

The learning guide to another book about a playground same-sex romance invites school kids to share with classmates how they feel when they "don’t just ‘like’ but… ‘like like’" someone.

According to attorneys at Becket, a nonprofit public interest law firm, when the school board first went public with the "pride" storybooks, it assured hundreds of concerned parents they would be notified when the books were read and could opt their children out.

Becket says the board repeated that assurance to parents as recently as March 22, 2023. But the very next day, Becket says the board announced that the books would be mandatory for all elementary school students. One school board member, according to the legal group, told concerned parents that opting out "is just telling that kid, ‘[h]ere’s another reason to hate another person.’"... (Read more)

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