A Bay Space Christian couple is taking the Sunnyvale faculty district to courtroom — alleging their baby’s elementary faculty refused to allow them to choose out of intercourse and gender identification classes that contradict their non secular beliefs.
Justin and Rose Taylor, each religious members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, declare the district flatly declined to excuse their two elementary-aged youngsters from classes on gender transitions and same-sex relationships in violation of a Supreme Court docket choice final 12 months that affirmed the rights of fogeys to choose out of such materials on non secular grounds.
That courtroom choice in Mahmoud v. Taylor held {that a} group of Muslim, Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox dad and mom in suburban Maryland might choose out of LGBTQ+ classes at their public faculties.
But the Taylors, Sunnyvale residents with 4 youngsters, had been advised in February that related LGBTQ+ classes in Sunnyvale faculties had been merely “not elective,” in keeping with a replica of a lawsuit filed in California’s Northern District on Tuesday.
“Our youngsters are probably the most cherished a part of our lives,” the couple advised The Submit in a press release. “We all know and love them finest and ought to be those deciding when and the way they find out about delicate matters concerning sexuality and gender.”
“Thankfully, the Supreme Court docket has acknowledged that proper for non secular dad and mom nationwide. We hope that Sunnyvale can select to acknowledge and respect our function as dad and mom to direct the ethical upbringing of our youngsters,” they added.
The Taylors argued within the authorized criticism that Sunnyvale’s LGBTQ+ instruction “goes far past educating kindness and respect,” instilling what they name an “ideological view of gender and sexuality” that undermines their household’s ethical values.
The district makes use of an LGBTQ+ educating information that tells instructors to include sexuality and gender-related instruction into seemingly unrelated topics — even math.
The educating information created by the Santa Clara County Workplace of Training, which oversees the Sunnyvale district, tells lecturers to include “LGBTQ+ inclusion” into math issues, comparable to utilizing issues associated to “marriage equality, gender-neutral loos, and LGBTQ+ rights” and to have a good time queer mathematicians.
One advisable e book the Taylors objected to, referred to as Satisfaction Pet, “invitations three- and four-year-olds to search for photos of issues they could discover at a delight parade, together with an ‘intersex [flag],’ a ‘[drag] king’ and ‘[drag] queen,’ ‘leather-based,’ ‘underwear,’ and a picture of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and intercourse employee, Marsha P. Johnson.”
One other youngsters’ e book cited within the lawsuit, referred to as “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish” replaces the lyrics of the basic youngsters’s tune “The Wheels on the Bus Go Spherical and Spherical” to have a good time drag.
Named defendants within the lawsuit embody the Sunnyvale faculty district; Superintendent Gudiel Crosthwaite; faculty board members Peggy Brewster, Isabel Jubes-Flamerich, Evelyn Castillo Profeta, Michelle Magniot and Bridget Watson; Sunnyvale director of pupil assist companies Paul Slayton; and Cumberland Elementary interim Principal Shana Riehl.
The Taylors emailed Riehl and different faculty officers in September 2025, just a few months after the SCOTUS ruling, and requested that their youngsters be excused from classes on identical‑intercourse marriage,
same-sex relationships or gender identification.
Slayton wrote in an electronic mail in January 2026 that the district’s legal professionals had been “a bit confused” about how to answer opt-out requests — then adopted up with a proper response in early February claiming the Supreme Court docket ruling “doesn’t override California’s statutory necessities governing tutorial content material,” in keeping with the lawsuit.
“Accordingly, and after additional evaluate, Sunnyvale College District just isn’t granting opt-outs from LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum or storybooks which might be a part of our adopted academic program,” Slayton wrote in an electronic mail cited within the lawsuit.
“The Structure doesn’t include a California carveout,” mentioned Michael O’Brien, the Taylors’ lawyer and counsel at Becket Fund, a pro-religious liberty group that’s supporting the lawsuit.
“But Sunnyvale is performing as if it does—making an attempt to sidestep Mahmoud and override the Taylors’ clearly protected parental rights whereas paying lip service to the very variety the Taylors symbolize. We’re assured the federal courts will reject that method.”
After the Supreme Court docket’s Mahmoud v. Taylor choice in June 2025, the Sunnyvale faculty board handed a decision “reaffirming Sunnyvale’s dedication to secure, inclusive faculties” that, partially, vowed that the “security and dignity” of LGBTQ+ college students received’t be compromised for the “consolation of adults or institutional warning.”
