Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Asks the U.S. Supreme Court to Force MCPS to Marginalize LGBTQ+ People.

 This morning’s Washington Post reports that the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and the Montgomery County Board of Education to include, without parental “opt-outs," certain storybooks in the MCPS elementary school English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum – storybooks which, while not addressing details of sexual orientation or gender identity, do recognize the presence in our community people who are not cisgender or straight.

 

The Becket Fund petition is based on the erroneous proposition that there is no difference at all between the MCPS Family Life and Human Sexuality Curriculum on matters of sexuality – for which there have always been parental opt-outs – and the English Language Arts storybooks at issue in this case.  But as was demonstrated back in July 2023 in a Maryland Matters Guest Commentary, “[w]hile an opt-out option is mandated by Maryland law for instruction on human sexuality . . . the storybooks at issue do not involve sex. As one MCPS parent explained in testimony before the Board of Education, ‘The book ‘Prince and Knight’ is no more about gay sex than ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Snow White’ are about heterosexual sex.’” 

 

This conflation of the teaching of human sexuality in health education classes with the simple recognition that not all families in our community are made up solely of straight, cisgender people is an attempt to marginalize or negate the existence of such people in our community.  This attempt was rejected by the lower courts.  They were correct.  The Constitution of the United States does not require such marginalization. 

For a more comprehensive justification for the MCPS policy, including the lack of an "opt-out" and an explanation of additional dangers posed by the Becket Fund approach, please read the July 2023 Maryland Matters piece at https://marylandmatters.org/2023/07/11/commentary-we-cant-opt-out-of-diversity-in-our-schools-and-communities/