Unlike Shakespeare’s challenged Romeo and Juliet, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, and Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat, once-upon-a-time schooling mainstays, nine elementary grade LGBTQ+ picture books find themselves in the hands of the nine Supreme Court Justices.
Brought by a diverse group of parents, Mahmoud v Taylor centers around a Montgomery County (MD) school board mandate that LGBTQ+ be taught in elementary school English/language arts classes with neither parent notification nor an opt-out option.
As plaintiffs, they argue that this “violates their First Amendment religious freedom rights by forcing their children to learn about gender and sexuality and their right to parent and instruct them as they see fit.” They are not challenging the books, but instead want their children excused from reading them.
The district, however, says, “These books are “necessary for a safe and inclusive environment for all kinds of kids,” arguing, too, that opt-outs are disruptive. For instance, when being read in class, what to do with the opted-out kids and that effect on their remaining classmates.
These nine inclusive picture books, woven into the elementary English/language arts curriculum to help teach LGBTQ themes, are “available for individual reading, classroom read-alouds, and other educational activities to foster and enhance literacy skills.”
- Born Ready, by Jodie Patterson
- Intersection Allies: We Make Room for All, by Chelsea Johnson, et al
- JACOB’s Room to Choose, by Ian & Sarah Hoffman
- Love, Violet, by Charlotte Sullivan Wild
- My Rainbow, by Trinity & DeShanna Neal
- Pride Puppy, by Robin Stevenson
- Prince and Knight, by Daniel Haack
- Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
- What Are Your Words?, by Katherine Locke
Responding, USA Today’s Ingrid Jacques writes in her “Supreme Court Will Decide Who Should Teach Kids about Sex,” that one of these books offers a search-and-find list of such words as “drag queen,” “underwear,” “intersex flag,” and “leather;” another asks fifth graders “What pronouns fit you?” and to consider the meaning of “non-binary.” Meanwhile, one says that doctors “only guess when identifying a baby’s sex,” while another portrays a same-sex playground romance.
Siding with the district, though, Sarah and Ian Hoffman, authors of JACOB’s Room to Choose, one of the nine, recently wrote, “Our Books Help Teach LGBTQ themes in School. Should SCOTUS Allow Parents to Opt Out?” in TIME Magazine. In it they say, “We believe that people have a fundamental right to practice and express their faith, but not when it harms others… We believe that every student in an elementary school deserves kindness and respect. Accepting others as they are is a path to a world where we can live together in peace, regardless of religion.”
For my part, I can’t help but think back to the time before kindergarten, a “children’s garden,” morphed into the new first grade, focusing on academics instead of socialization and when sex didn’t dominate entertainment venues and ads. too.
And I am saddened by the loss of childhood innocence and miss the simple wisdoms expressed in Random Acts of Kindness that once blanketed school hallways, such as Mother Teresa’s “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
The Court decides the case later this month or in July.
~ With my thanks, Carol
