Alaska AG reaffirms parents’ rights to opt children out of sex ed, gender identity lessons

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor released an opinion Thursday informing school districts that parents have the right to opt their children out of gender identity lessons.

Referencing a state statute passed in 2016, Taylor explained that the requirement to notify parents about “content involving human reproduction or sexual matters” extended to gender identity.

School districts must notify parents at least two weeks in advance and respect their wishes if they don’t want their children learning about such topics.

Although Taylor didn’t accuse a specific district of violating the law, he did write that it had “come to our attention that some school districts may be in violation of this legal requirement by failing to adopt the appropriate policy.”

However, a Democrat lawmaker accused the attorney general of ignoring public opinion.

“It just seems like an escalation of ‘we don’t really care what the public wants or thinks – we’re going to rewrite the way that we all operate with no public input or feedback or engagement,” said Sen. Loki Tobin, D-Anchorage. 

Sex and gender have been hot topics in public education, and schools nationwide have been criticized for not allowing parents to opt their children out of lessons they don’t want their children learning at school. 

Parents in states such as Virginia, Pennsylvania and Illinois have opted out of lessons involving social-emotional learning, LBGT storybooks and age-inappropriate sex education.  

Alaska school districts, such as Anchorage, have also come under fire for intentionally hiding students’ gender identities from their parents.  

In addition to affirming parents’ rights to opt out, Taylor released a second opinion reminding libraries not to distribute sexually explicit materials to minors.