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Lexington parent sues over LGBTQ-friendly storybooks in schools
The father said it goes against his Christian values to have his child schooled on “diversity, equity, and inclusion issues, including issues of race, gender, and sexuality, taught from a secular worldview.”
A Lexington father is suing the town’s school district and some of its leaders, alleging they stonewalled his attempts to excuse his kindergartener from lessons featuring LGBTQ themes that conflict with his Christian values.
The parent, referred to as “Alan L.” in the Oct. 17 complaint, specifically pointed to picture books depicting same-sex couples and their children — classroom instruction he says is “unmistakably normative and contradicts his family’s faith by normalizing and celebrating LGBTQ relationships and identities.”
He’s suing Lexington Public Schools, the Lexington School Committee, and three administrators in federal court, accusing them of violating his civil rights, due process rights, freedom of religion, and right to direct his child’s upbringing.
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In an affidavit filed earlier this month, Alan L. said it goes against his religious beliefs to allow his child, J.L., to be instructed in content that touches on “diversity, equity, and inclusion issues, including issues of race, gender, and sexuality, taught from a secular worldview.”
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“I should not have to choose between enrolling my child in public school and protecting J.L.’s religious upbringing,” he wrote. “But that is the choice [Lexington school officials] are forcing me to make.”
He’s asking a federal judge to keep Lexington from forcing his son to participate in lessons that conflict with the family’s religious beliefs without prior notice and the opportunity to opt-out, among other stipulations.
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Alan L. has also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would, among other things, require advanced notice of classroom materials on sexual education, LGBTQ relationships or identities, and lessons “promoting the LGBTQ Pride movement or Black Lives Matter.”
A judge has yet to rule on the request.
According to the lawsuit, Alan L. contacted school officials over the summer and asked that his child be opted out of health class and any DEI lessons upon starting at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School. However, he alleges school officials ignored his requests and dragged their feet on providing class materials in what he describes as a “pattern of bureaucratic evasion designed to frustrate faith-based parental decision-making.”
In the meantime, he says, J.L.’s class was shown the books “All Are Welcome” and “Families, Families, Families!” The latter uses animals to depict various family makeups — a single mom, for example, or a family with two fathers — and Alan L. alleges the book “conveys the message that all family arrangements are equally morally acceptable.”
He claims he was forced to do “damage control” and address sensitive topics with his child much earlier than he intended.
How Lexington responded
But in a motion opposing the preliminary injunction, Lexington Public Schools said J.L.’s teachers do not recall him being in class for the readings in question. School officials noted J.L. has an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, that calls for more time outside the kindergarten classroom than in it. Both picture books were purportedly shown during times when J.L. is typically receiving out-of-classroom services, according to the response.
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Lexington officials further alleged Alan L.’s opt-out requests were too broad and vague. Both sides are at odds over whether the district was required to comply under a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the justices sided with religious parents who want to pull their children out of class when a lesson features LGBTQ-themed storybooks.
Alan L. is represented by attorneys from the American Center for Law and Justice and the Massachusetts Family Institute, two conservative organizations focused on religious freedoms.
Lexington Public Schools said it’s willing to address materials on a case-by-case basis to determine whether the content encourages or promotes ideals Alan L. finds objectionable. However, the district pushed back on his claims that “All Are Welcome” and “Families, Families, Families!” amount to the “tutorials on the moral equivalency of one’s gayness that Plaintiff would have this Court believe.”
The books are “geared toward mere tolerance” and teach children that schools are welcoming spaces and that some kids may have two fathers or two mothers, the district said. Further, school officials noted, the characters in “Families, Families, Families!” are cartoon animals, not people.
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“Setting aside the fact that these images depict creatures that neither marry, nor practice religion, nor operate on a system of morals, the book does not reference gay marriage or hold out same-sex couples or any other potential family grouping as being morally correct or equivalent to same-sex marriages,” the district asserted. “It simply holds them out as…in existence.”
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