RICHMOND, VA: "A federal appeals court has ruled that parents in Montgomery County can’t remove their elementary school-age children from classes that include books on human sexuality and gender. The parents, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, had asked the court to uphold their religious free-exercise rights to opt their children out of classes where the books were being used. One of the books to which the parents objected, “Pride Puppy,” tells three- and four-year-old students to find images from a vocabulary list including “‘intersex flag,’ ‘drag queen,’ ‘underwear,’ ‘leather,’ and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker.” Another volume, “Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope,” promoted what attorneys representing the parents said was a “child-knows-best” view of gender transitioning. They claimed teachers were “instructed to say doctors only ‘guess’ when identifying a newborn [child’s]” gender.

Initially, MCPS allowed parents to remove their children from the discussions. But the district, with the backing of the county’s board of education, reversed its policy for the 2023-2024 school year, and would no longer notify parents in advance about readings from the disputed texts.

Two members of a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said Wednesday the parents hadn’t made their case for a preliminary injunction against the county’s school district, and couldn’t show that their fears about classroom instruction had been realized."

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/may/15/court-rejects-maryland-parents-objections-lgbtq-bo/