Opt-out policies that allow parents to exempt their kids from gender and sexuality lessons undermine “specific goals the district is trying to advance,” lawyers representing Maryland’s largest school district argued in court on Wednesday.

Muslim and Ethiopian Orthodox parents filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County Public Schools in May after the district reversed its original opt-out policy that gave parents the right to refuse lessons they considered at odds with their traditional views. The lessons instruct teachers to read and lead class discussions on at least one of the district’s selected LGBTQ books per year.

District lawyers and counsel from Becket Law, the firm representing parents, began oral arguments on Wednesday.

Gender and sexuality lessons fall into MCPS’s English Language Arts curriculum, which district lawyers implied was strategic: Maryland law only requires schools to allow opt-out choices for health curriculum.

A student’s right to reject instruction in sexuality is “precisely what this [gender and sexuality] curriculum is trying to prevent,” MCPS lawyers said in court. Mandatory gender and sexuality instruction is “critical for educating children in a diverse society,” the lawyers argued, adding that the curriculum “doesn’t work” if only some children participate.

The curriculum is part of the district’s effort to create more “representative” classrooms. Popular stories like Sleeping Beauty, the district said in its arguments, over-represent heteronormative families. Implemented in fall 2022, the curriculum contains over 20 “inclusive” book titles.

One of the books asks fifth graders what it means to be “non-binary,” and another says doctors only “guess” when determining a newborn’s sex, according to the lawsuit.

Parents object to the district’s framing of “inclusivity,” and claim that LGBTQ books violate their religious beliefs. Without opt-out options, parents must either pull their children out of public school, an option that is financially out of reach for many parents, or violate their religion.

“These religious parents believe the storybooks are age-inappropriate, spiritually and emotionally damaging for kids and inconsistent with their faith. The lawsuit seeks to restore their ability to help their own children on such complex and sensitive issues,” the parents’ lawyers said.