US supreme court rules schools must let kids opt out of hearing LGBTQ+ books

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Fri 27 Jun 2025 10.59 EDT
Last modified on Fri 27 Jun 2025 11.00 EDT


The US supreme court has ruled that schools must give children the chance to opt out on faith grounds from listening to storybooks being read out loud that feature gay and transgender characters, in a landmark decision that will be seen as striking a blow for religious rights in education.

In a case that exposed the passions surrounding the US’s religious-secular divide, the court sided with parents in Maryland who protested that they were left with no means of shielding their children from the contents of six storybooks they found objectionable.

The ruling means that the Montgomery county board of education – which administers schools in some of Washington DC’s most affluent suburbs – must provide opt-out facilities.

In the case, Mahmoud v Taylor, three sets of parents, comprising Muslims, Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, complained that the board’s policy in effect forced their children to hear storylines that they alleged promoted “political ideologies about family life and human sexuality that are inconsistent with sound science, common sense, and the well-being of children”.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/27/supreme-court-lgbt-book-ban-case-ruling

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Link to RULING (PDF) - https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-297_4f14.pdf

Some commentary is that Satanists will have a field day (with all the "10 Commandments" and "Bible" impositions in red states)!

[Ms. Toad]

1. So I guess that means parents can opt their children

Out of learning the law (same gender marriage, that sexual harassment laws also prohibit harassment in the workplace on the basis of sexuality.

Probably they can even opt their children out of hearing stories about interracial marriages, since religion was an early reason for rejecting those, as well. Maybe they can even demand a separate classroom, since integration was also claimed to be based on religion.

When you start allowing children to opt out of exposure to things which are legal (and which it is unconstitutional to make legal), there is little basis to enforce the laws against someone who claims a faith based objection.

(Disclaimer: unlike usually with I comment, I have not yet read the decision - just speaking in disgust for the concept of allowing parents to opt their children to things which expose their children to things which are legal, but with which they disagree.)

[Silent Type]

2. I'd rather have rube parents opt-out, than have them filing lawsuits and ranting about programs they don't agree with.

[Wiz Imp]

3. So for this to make any kind of sense at all

that means children can opt out from listening to any kind of religious or political speech as well. After all, fundamentalist religious teachings and right wing politics not only offend my religious viewpoint but completely contradict absolutely everything I believe in.

Somehow, I doubt it will be adjudicated that way which makes it blatantly unconstitutional.

[Owens]

4. Then parents and kids have the right to opt out of religious books!! Especially the Bible!

It goes both ways!!

[Botany]

5. This is just cruelty. Pulling those books is telling little gay kids they less human then others.

And those “Parents” are more than likely cuts outs who were paid to bring about this case
and if they feel their kids are not getting the right kind of education can send their kids to
Catholic or Christian or Muslim schools and stay the hell out of our public schools.

[edhopper]

6. But they can be forced

to read the Ten Commandments. Religious "freedom" only goes one way.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Well the short-sighted decision

opens up an opportunity for a whole new set of case law (per one comment I saw). I.e., opt-outs of other things.

[Dawson Leery]

7. "Muslims, Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians..."

And I will NEVER step into their houses of worship.

[twodogsbarking]

9. I am living long enough to see my worst fears from my teenage years become reality.

I am 73

[splano]

10. ...

Had brunch today with a lawyer friend whose niece attends a rural school that uses a bible in some of their English lessons. She's looking forward to drafting an opt-out letter for her today given this ruling and seeing where it goes. Her opinion on the matter is that this places schools in even more legal jeopardy because it's inevitable that there will be one teacher, or one principal somewhere that will try and flout the ruling by ignoring the opt-out letter.

Texas and Oklahoma recently passed bills allowing or even requiring the bible to be taught in public schools. The Supreme Court just handed parents unhappy with those bills a tool for opting out.

[Karasu]

11. Then on faith grounds, I choose to opt out of Supreme Court rulings. After all, apparently we're all free to pick and

Last edited Fri Jun 27, 2025, 06:04 PM - Edit history (1)

choose when and when not to obey the judicial system now, and religious freedom is clearly that much more important than every single other fucking right people have in this country.

[EllieBC]

12. And people wondering why Muslims would vote

for Trump, there you go. They hate gays more than they hate the US fucking with the ME.