Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Vox reports:
The Supreme Court will hear a case that could impose a regime similar to Florida’s original Don’t Say Gay law on every public school in the country. The plaintiffs in Mahmoud v. Taylor — a group of Muslim and Christian parents — don’t specifically ask the justices to ban discussions of homosexuality or gender identity from classrooms.
Instead, they seek a right to be notified if their children are about to be taught from certain books they claim contain LGBTQ themes, as well as an opportunity to opt those children out of the lessons.
To grant this request, they want the Court to embrace a legal rule that would place such heavy obligations on teachers who discuss these topics that it is unclear whether they would practically be able to do so. Furthermore, even if public schools tried to comply with these disclosure requirements, they are so burdensome that doing so would likely be impossible.
From a January 2025 SCOTUSblog report:
The Supreme Court will decide whether a group of Maryland parents can opt to have their children exempted from LGBTQ-themed storybooks. The justices on Friday afternoon granted Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which a coalition of parents from Montgomery County, Md., contend that requiring their children to participate in instruction that violates their religious beliefs violates their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion.
The dispute over the storybooks has its roots in the county’s 2022 approval of books featuring LGBTQ characters for inclusion in its language-arts curriculum. One book used for young children, Pride Puppy, tells the story of a puppy that gets lost during an LGBTQ Pride parade.
When the county announced in 2023 that it would not allow parents to opt to have their children excused from instruction involving the storybooks, a group of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian parents went to federal court.
The parents are represented by the anti-LGBTQ Catholic hate group, the Beckett Fund For Religious Liberty, which represented Hobby Lobby in its successful bid to deny birth control to employees. The Liberty Counsel has filed a supportive brief. My 2024 report on the case is here. Hit the first link for much more.
The Supreme Court threatens to bring “Don’t Say Gay” to every classroom in America www.vox.com/scotus/40835…
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser.bsky.social) April 15, 2025 at 8:38 AM