More than 500 parents of different faiths rally against mandatory LGBT materials in Maryland school district

Parents rallied outside a Maryland school district office Tuesday to protest the district’s newly unavoidable LGBTQ materials.

The parents in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) are outraged that new policies force them to accept gay indoctrination that may go against their religious beliefs.

“This is maybe 10% of the people who are coming here today,” a man who went by Desta, a priest at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church of St. Michael in Northeast D.C., told The Washington Times. “We’re not going to stop. This is a serious issue.”

Parents also say the district has been limiting participation at school board meetings ahead of the implementation of the new policies, according to Fox News. The district has cited “safety concerns” as its reason for limiting public participation.  

The protesting parents said it’s their right to bring up their children the way their faith demands.  

“We don’t hate anybody — we just want our rights,” said one of the speakers at the protest, according to the Washington Times.    

MCPS called the mandatory indoctrination part of the district’s “mission to equity,” which is supposed to represent the “global community.”  

“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,” said a statement by MCPS to local WUSA 9 News.    

But local Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim leaders disagree with the district, saying schools should represent the community of parents, not a global community. 

“You can teach what you want to teach, you can set your boundaries on what love is, but do not assume that everyone’s boundaries are the same,” one of the protesting families said, according to WUSA, which estimated the protestors at more than 500 people. 

A group of interfaith parents are in the process of suing the district over the LGBT policies. 

On May 24, Becket Religious Liberties filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Maryland on behalf of the parents to force the district to allow parents to opt their kids out of such instruction. Becket said the policies forbidding LGBT curriculum opt-outs “infringe on [a parent’s] right to direct their children’s upbringing on sensitive religious matters.” 

The district court will hear oral arguments Aug. 9. 

Some parents argue the policies are part of a broader failure of MCPS. 

“Parents in general at Montgomery County are starting to realize that, ‘Oh, this district doesn’t care what they think. They think [the kids] belong to them,” protestor Bethany S. Mandel told Fox News Digital. “Test scores are absolutely catastrophically bad. But … the school district is spending its time and energy on ideological activities instead of just catching kids up.”