The district closed the school-board meeting to the public, in possible violation of state law.
Rockville, Md. — Maryland families will take the fight for parental rights to the Supreme Court if that’s what it takes, parents protesting against the Montgomery County Board of Education said on Tuesday.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) announced last month that it would not allow students to opt out of the gender and sexuality curriculum, which parents say violates their religious beliefs. Although MCPS limited attendance at Tuesday’s public Board of Education meeting for unspecified “safety reasons,” hundreds of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians and Muslims rallied outside, calling on the board to reinstate the district’s opt-out policy.
“We’re here to demand our rights.” said Mark Haile, a father of three children who attend public school in the county. “We’re not here to hate anybody, or to demand anybody else’s rights. We are here to regain our rights.”
MCPS currently has no plans to alter its policy. Parents said they will apply pressure on the board until that changes.
“I’m going to be here for my kid, this is my kid. You’re going to make us take this all the way to the Supreme Court when you already know what happens at the Supreme Court,” Jahangir Baig, who testified in front of the board, said. “Every time we go to the Supreme Court, they restore the religious right. Opt-out is that inclusion.”
Three Muslim and Christian families have filed a lawsuit against the district, claiming that the policy violates their First Amendment rights by prohibiting opting out of curriculum that opposes their religion.
“Parents have the right to decide on the values and teachings they impart to their children,” Salem Peter, a mother of elementary- and middle-school students told the board. “While inclusivity is important, it’s equally crucial to respect and accommodate the cultural and religious values of diverse families. Introducing sexual behavior and preference at an early age raises legitimate concern for us parents. Parents should have the freedom to decide when and how they address those topics, based on our cultural, religious, and personal beliefs.”
MCPS “expects all classrooms to be inclusive and safe spaces for students,” the district said in a March statement, adding that “students and families may not choose to opt out of engaging with any instructional materials, other than ‘Family Life and Human Sexuality Unit of Instruction’ which is specifically permitted by Maryland law. As such, teachers will not send home letters to inform families when inclusive books are read in the future.” The county’s “inclusive books” include titles such as Pride Puppy, Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, and Prince and Knight, all of which expose children in pre-K through grade 5 to intersexuality, homosexuality, and drag queens.
“The Montgomery County Board of Education and counselors have not been willing to hear us and have been silencing us,” Haile said. “This is our voice, and it’s only going to get stronger and stronger.”
A small group of almost entirely white counter-protesters held rainbow umbrellas and flags in an adjoining parking lot.
Although the group advocating for opt-out rights is predominantly Muslim and Ethiopian, Montgomery County council member Kristin Mink likened students who oppose LGBTQ instruction to “white supremacists” at a school-board meeting earlier this month. Haile said that despite the district’s millions of taxpayer dollars invested in “anti-racist” training and racial-equity initiatives, his community’s voices have been silenced.
“Our voices have not been heard,” he said. “This thing is going to get stronger and stronger. We will be here again. If you heard one of our testifiers, she said we will be here every day, every week, every month. Every time the Board of Education has a meeting. We are just parents, here unorganized. When we get organized, we’ll be even stronger.”
County resident Reverend J. Grace Harley said she lost 18 years of life to transgenderism. Harley detransitioned decades ago and now works to stop children from falling prey to the ideology.
“The best years of my life I spent acting like a man. And it still hurts because the best years of my life were given over to that lie that I believed,” she said. “Now I witness all these young people, more and more young people who choose to be LGBT because it’s so popular. In my heart of hearts, I could not not come down and be a part of the resistance to what’s going on.”
Harley quoted Matthew 18:6 as the reason why she protests: “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
“My heart bleeds for what’s going on,” Harley said. “I know what is going on. I know how people are being impacted. But what’s at stake is that God wants all of us to be in Heaven with Him. Jesus died that we will be in heaven. These young people are being seduced into hell.”
One child who spoke at the rally said, “I do not belong to MCPS, I belong to my parents,” and added that a board member accused her parents of brainwashing their children. Another said he was protesting on behalf of his younger sister, adding that “no matter what race, what color, what ethnic background or religion, I’m so delighted to see all of you come together fighting for one cause.”
The next Board of Education meeting is on July 20. Rally-goers will again gather in protest, and don’t plan on stopping until the opt-out policy is restored.
Sameerah Munshi, who works with the parent group Coalition of Virtue, told the board:
Our faith is not partisan, and our people are not backwards. Part of the American dream of our people is that they pass on their values to their children. But members of this school board have mocked our values and have said we cannot be allowed to opt our children out precisely because they want to end that dream. Our constitutional right to religious freedom and to raise our children precisely protects that dream. Many of our families don’t have much of a choice whether to place their children in this public setting. So we at least ask that we at least have a choice for our children not to be forced to participate in celebrating or normalizing views that contradict our religion.