{"id":10853,"date":"2026-07-02T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=10853"},"modified":"2026-07-02T13:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:54:00","slug":"parents-sue-california-school-after-refusal-to-let-students-opt-out-of-lgbtq-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/07\/parents-sue-california-school-after-refusal-to-let-students-opt-out-of-lgbtq-curriculum.html","title":{"rendered":"Parents Sue California School After Refusal to Let Students Opt Out of LGBTQ+ Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_10856\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10856\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10856\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2026\/07\/LGBT-Books-Lawsuit_credit-Left-Adobe-Stock-Right-Running-Press-Kids.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10856\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Adobe Stock | Right: Running Press Kids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Two Mormon parents are suing a California school district after the district refused to allow their students to opt out of a gender and sexuality curriculum that included pro-LGBTQ+ material. Justin and Rose Taylor, who are Mormon, are suing Sunnyvale School District in the Bay Area, stating the district\u2019s refusal to let their two elementary-aged children opt out from the curriculum violates a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/06\/27\/us-news\/supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-maryland-parents-who-want-to-pull-kids-from-classes-with-lgbtq-themed-books\/\">Supreme Court decision last year<\/a> that affirmed students could opt out of such materials for religious reasons. The decision upheld that a group of parents from various religious backgrounds, including Muslims and Catholics, could opt out of similar materials in Maryland public schools.<\/p>\n<p>The school originally complied with the Taylors\u2019 request to opt out in 2025 after the Supreme Court decision, sharing opt out forms with the parents and keeping librarians from checking out LGBTQ+ materials to their students. However, after a few months of dialogue, the school rejected their request, stating the curriculum as \u201cnot optional.\u201d The district claimed that the Supreme Court\u2019s decision did not set a \u201cgeneral or automatic right for parents to opt their children out of required curriculum.\u201d In their <a href=\"https:\/\/becketfund.org\/case\/taylor-v-sunnyvale-school-district\/\">complaint<\/a>, the Taylors list a number of materials, including the integration of LGBTQ+ materials in basic math problems. Some of the reading materials included for students as young as 3 and 4 years old include a picture book entitled <em>Pride Puppy<\/em>, where children are encouraged to find objects in pictures such as drag kings and queens, underwear, and an image of Marsha P. Johnson, a celebrated LGBTQ+ activist who was also a sex worker. Another picture book is entitled <em>The Hips on the Drag Queen go Swish, Swish, Swish, <\/em>set to the tune of the popular preschool song \u201cThe Wheels on the Bus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Taylors filed their lawsuit June 22<sup>nd<\/sup>, represented by the Becket Fund. \u201cSunnyvale has thumbed its nose at the Supreme Court in brazen defiance of its <em>Mahmoud<\/em> decision,\u201d wrote Becket in statement. \u201cIn\u00a0<em>Mahmoud<\/em>, the Court held that Maryland\u2019s Montgomery County Public Schools violated religious freedom by denying parents notice and opt-outs from storybooks and instruction that conflicted with their faith.\u00a0That is exactly what happened here\u2014and Sunnyvale even promotes many of the same storybooks for its mandatory LGBTQ+ instruction.\u201d Becket insisted that the school\u2019s refusal to comply with the Supreme Court \u201cwas no accident\u201d and that teachers were told by Sunnyvale to \u201cresist pressures\u201d against the curriculum. \u201cOur children are the most cherished part of our lives. We know and love them best and should be the ones deciding when and how they learn about sensitive topics regarding sexuality and gender,\u201d insisted the Taylors. \u201cFortunately, the Supreme Court has recognized that right for religious parents nationwide. We hope that Sunnyvale can choose to acknowledge and respect our role as parents to direct the moral upbringing of our children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Mormon parents are suing a California school district after the district refused to allow their students to opt out of a gender and sexuality curriculum that included pro-LGBTQ+ material. Justin and Rose Taylor, who are Mormon, are suing Sunnyvale School District in the Bay Area, stating the district\u2019s refusal to let their two elementary-aged&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":10856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Parents Sue California School After Refusal to Let Students Opt Out of LGBTQ+ Curriculum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mormon parents sue Sunnyvale schools over LGBTQ+ curriculum opt-outs, citing religious rights and a recent Supreme Court ruling.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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