Joe.My.God. LGBT News
From an April Washington Post report:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared poised to side with a group of religious parents seeking to pull their children from public school lessons with LGBTQ+-themed books — a significant expansion of the long-standing practice of allowing opt outs for reproductive health classes. The lawsuit over story time and books with titles such as “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” and “Love, Violet” is one of three major religious-rights cases on the Supreme Court docket this term.
At issue for the justices is whether public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, illegally burden the First Amendment rights of parents to freely exercise their religion when they require children to participate in discussions that touch on gender and sexuality that conflict with their faith. During more than two-and-a-half hours of argument on Tuesday, several justices read aloud from the text of the disputed storybooks, some of which referred to drag queens and same-sex marriage.
From an earlier Vox report:
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.
The parents were 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 filed a supportive brief.
I’ll update this post shortly with a new report.
Supreme Court Ruling: Mahmoud v. Taylor
Alito writes the opinion. 6-3 decision.
Basically parents are allowed to remove their children from LGBT+ teachings in public schools. A HUGE win for parental and religious rights.
— CA ET Nerd (@earlyvotedata) June 27, 2025
NEWS: in the case Mahmoud v. Taylor, Justice Alito writes for the court, stating that parents can opt their kids out of instruction using LGBTQ+ themed books
Liberals dissents in a 6-3 vote
— Electoral Eagle (@ElectoralEagle) June 27, 2025
🚨LIVE: Awaiting SCOTUS decision on Mahmoud v Taylor! pic.twitter.com/GXIPMZDUpl
— Moms for Liberty (@Moms4Liberty) June 27, 2025
NEW: In Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case about whether religious families have a First Amendment right to opt out of public school lessons involved LGBTQ themes, the court holds that the families are likely to succeed and are entitled to a preliminary injunction.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 27, 2025
UPDATE via The Advocate:
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday in the case of Mahmoud v. Taylor in favor of religious parents in a Maryland school district who sought an opt-out for their children from LGBTQ-themed books. Mahmoud v. Taylor was brought by parents of varying faiths who have children in the Montgomery County Public Schools. When several LGBTQ-themed books were made available in classrooms in October 2022, parents were offered an opt-out.
However, it became difficult to accommodate the number of opt-outs, according to the school district, and school officials worried that students who are part of the LGBTQ+ community or have family members who are would be subjected to social stigma and isolation. The opt-out policy also put the district at risk of noncompliance with anti-discrimination laws, so the district ended the policy in 2023.
Read the full article.