A Mormon couple seeking to protect their children from radical gender ideology were allegedly notified by Sunnyvale School District in Santa Clara County that LGBTQ instruction was "not optional and is not subject to parent opt-out provisions."
The district allegedly gave this notice after — and apparently with full knowledge of — the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which the high court held that a Maryland school district's policy of withholding from parents notice of LGBT propaganda sessions and forbidding opt-outs constituted "an unconstitutional burden" on the parents' religious exercise.
'The school boards will continue to defy the SCOTUS ruling, gaslight, lie, and deflect.'
The district also allegedly denied the Mormon parents an opt-out after the California Department of Education acknowledged in its August 2025 guidance that the "fundamental holding" in Mahmoud was that schools must provide parents with the opportunity to opt their children out of policies or exposure to material that schools have "reason to know will 'substantially interfere'" with parents' religious rights.
Unwilling to surrender their children's hearts and minds to the apparent LGBT propagandists at SSD's Cumberland Elementary School, Justin and Rose Taylor — represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a nonprofit law firm focused on protecting religious freedoms that won the Mahmoud case before SCOTUS — filed a lawsuit on Monday against the district in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The Taylors — the proud parents of four children, including a rising third-grade son and a rising first-grade daughter at Cumberland Elementary School — said in a statement, "Our 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," continued the parents. "Fortunately, the Supreme Court has recognized that right for religious parents nationwide."
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PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images
"California school districts have been putting LGBTQ propaganda in front of students for close to 20 years," Alvin Lui, president of the parental rights advocacy group Courage Is a Habit, told Blaze News. "They're just now much more emboldened. I'm ecstatic to see these parents make an example out of the Sunnyvale School District."
The lawsuit claims that "Sunnyvale's denial violates parents' constitutional rights to direct the education and upbringing of their children in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs," and asks the court to:
- enter a declaration that the SSD's alleged refusal to afford the parents a right to "opt out from LGBTQ+ instruction, including the forced reading of the District’s recommended LGBTQ+ storybooks, violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment";
- enter a declaration that forcing the Taylors to "educate their children, read,and/or speak consistently with the perspectives contained in the LGBTQ+ instruction, and compelling Plaintiffs’ children to accept one viewpoint to the exclusion of all others violates their rights under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment";
- enter a declaration that "forcing students, over their parents’ objection, to read or listen to the LGBTQ+ instruction violates the Taylors’ rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment";
- grant preliminary and permanent injunctions prohibiting the school from forcing the kids to participate in the LGBT propaganda sessions; and
- award the parents damages for loss of their rights under federal law.
The SSD did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.
The lawsuit details some of the LGBT agitprop allegedly pushed by the SSD, noting that its curriculum "integrates LGBTQ+ history, representation, and examples throughout instructional units to show 'diverse backgrounds, identities, experiences, and abilities, including those who are lesbian, gay, genderqueer, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual (LGBTQIA).'"
This propaganda is apparently foisted upon students at all grade levels.
The "LGBTQ+ Teaching Guide" issued by the Santa Clara County Office of Education, which oversees Sunnyvale, discusses how to incorporate LGBT propaganda into virtually every subject.
Math teachers, for instance, are told in the guide to "use problems that relate to marriage equality, gender-neutral bathrooms, and LGBTQ+ rights to demonstrate mathematical concepts such as statistics, probability, and geometry."
Science and health teachers are told to champion "gender-inclusive biology" — in which, for example, "ovaries" are substituted in for "women" so as not to suggest a link between womanhood and female reproductive organs.
This guidance — which has been embraced by Sunnyvale — even quoted LGBTQ activist Barbara Gittings: "The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts."
The Taylors' lawsuit highlights a number of the agitprop materials allegedly used by the SSD in its LGBT instruction including a book that changes the lyrics of "The Wheels on the Bus" to lyrics celebrating drag titled "The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish" and "Pride Puppy," a book that tasks 3- and 4-year-old students with searching for items they might find at a non-straight parade — including transvestite activists, underwear, leather, "intersex flag," and feathers.
The LGBT instruction under way in Sunnyvale is of the same type addressed in Mahmoud, claimed the lawsuit.
The Taylors' lawsuit alleges that while SSD initially appeared willing to permit opt-outs, "Sunnyvale abruptly flipped its position" and "affirmatively disclaimed its constitutional responsibility to afford families what the First Amendment requires."
Sunnyvale stated in a letter to the Taylors that it was "not granting opt-outs from LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum or storybooks that are part of our adopted educational program."
The district added in its letter that "the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor ... addressed a specific set of facts in another state" and neither created a "general or automatic right for parents to opt their children out of required curriculum" nor overrode "California's statutory requirements governing instructional content."
Becket said that "Sunnyvale’s defiance was no accident. After Mahmoud came down, Sunnyvale told its teachers to 'resist pressures' that might get in the way of its curriculum."
However, Michael O'brien, counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the Taylors, underscored that "the Constitution doesn't come with a California carve-out."
One of the defendants, SSD director of student support services Paul Slayton, said in a statement obtained by the Press Democrat, "The district was surprised to learn that the Taylor family had filed a lawsuit, particularly given the positive and productive discussions that took place following the family’s initial concerns."
"We will continue to approach this matter with professionalism and care," added Slayton.
"When the Mahmoud decision came out from the SCOTUS, like everyone in our space, we were very happy," Alvin Lui told Blaze News. "However, the first thing we did was warn parents that schools, and especially school counselors, will not honor that decision."
"The school boards will continue to defy the SCOTUS ruling, gaslight, lie, and deflect. They'll try to wear parents down so they can continue to put obscene LGBTQ materials in front of children as young as possible."
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