On June 6, in Rockville, Maryland , Muslim parents rallied to demand that Montgomery County Public Schools reinstate opt-out options for sexually explicit content and to assert their rights to preview curricula materials. Their message was simple: “Protect our children.”

Across the parking lot, a smaller, mostly white crowd donned their rainbow gear. One of the protesters ironically, given the demographics of the two sides, held a sign that read, “ Black Lives Matter .”

In the district’s school board meeting that same day, Muslim students spoke against gender and sexuality content in their curricula, arguing that the material violated their First Amendment rights. A middle school student said , “My religion teaches to respect all religions and all human beings and their rights. So does my country's law. And I want my right back to have an opt-out option."

In response, local government officials, realizing they can no longer ignore students and parents, have resorted to name-calling them. Montgomery Council City Councilmember Kristen Mink said , “This issue, unfortunately, does put … some Muslim families on the same side of an issue as white supremacists and outright bigots.”

Parents in Fairfax County, Virginia, Montgomery County’s southern and equally dysfunctional neighbor, are facing the same uphill battle with their local government. School board officials allow shared-sex bathrooms and locker rooms and mandate preferred pronouns in the district’s code of conduct. Teachers must also undergo training dictating that the gender identity of students be kept secret from their parents.

But even these outrageous policies are not enough to satisfy the woke rainbow mafia. Just when parents think public schools have gone too far, activists say, “Hold my Bud Light and watch this.”

Virginia parents recently discovered, for example, that the Fairfax County Council of PTAs (FCCPTA) is promoting LGBT clubs for the district’s elementary schools. And on June 6, Aldrin Elementary School in Reston, Virginia, kicked off its “Rainbow Club,” with a sign that described it as an elementary school version of a Gender Spectrum Alliance club. Robert Rigby, the founder of the district’s LGBT organization FCPS Pride, is also the vice president of advocacy for the FCCPTA. In a recent email to members of his organization, Rigby writes , “[K]eep an eye open for a zoom brainstorming meeting with us this summer on Rainbow Clubs in elementary schools!”

Rigby and activists like him have gone too far. Aggressively pushing gender and sexuality on young children now transcends partisanship tribalism. Opposition to these initiatives is not just coming from Muslims and Christian conservatives. Parents like me, who in their youth danced the night away at gay clubs and consider themselves community allies, are scratching their heads and wondering: What in the world is happening in K-12 public education?

Aside from calling parents who pose this question “bigots” and “white supremacists,” some legislators are trying to criminalize dissent. In October 2022, Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman introduced a bill to the state’s legislature that would make parents’ refusal to affirm their children’s preferred gender identity a crime. The bill did not pass — for now.

Some organizations try to subdue parent voices by villainizing the groups with which they affiliate. The Southern Poverty Law Center has established a “ hate map ” that includes basically anyone who objects to the sexualization of children. Their so-called extremist groups now include Parents Defending Education and Moms for Liberty, both of which advocate parental rights.

Like the Southern Poverty Law Center, Planned Parenthood also has thrown its hat into the ring to completely entrench sex education with its LGBT-approved curriculum , which is now being implemented in public schools in Norfolk, Virginia. The curriculum includes instruction on pronoun usage, homosexuality, abortion, and masturbation. Masturbation is discussed in detail with sixth graders. Norfolk Public Schools provides these 11-year-old children with instructional resources on the topic that include a Planned Parenthood video detailing how lube and toys are helpful for masturbation.

The lobbying efforts to sexualize and indoctrinate our nation’s public school children are powerful and well-funded. The woke rainbow mafia is relentless in its push to expose innocent, impressionable students to material that is barely appropriate for adults. There’s a term for this behavior: grooming. Parents see it, and we are rising to the occasion to protect our children.

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and a member of the Independent Women’s Network.