REA(LifeSiteNews) — One of the largest and most radically pro-LGBT school districts in America is indoctrinating children into LGBT ideology as early as age 4 without parents’ consent or even their knowledge.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), located in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., announced in an email on March 23 that parents can no longer opt their children out of pro-LGBT books and lessons.
The district, which has more than 160,000 students, will not even notify parents before exposing children to transgenderism and homosexuality, according to the email.
“MCPS expects all classrooms to be inclusive and safe spaces for students, including those who identify as LGBTQ+ or have family members in the LGBTQ+ community,” the email said. “A broad representation of personal characteristics within curricular or instructional materials promotes this desired outcome.”
The statement added that “there is an expectation that teachers utilize these inclusive lessons and texts with all students.”
“Students and families may not choose to opt out of engaging with any instructional materials,” except for a sexual education class, it continued. “As such, teachers will not send home letters to inform families when inclusive books are read in the future.”
The email comes after controversy over a list of pro-LGBT books for elementary schools that MCPS approved last year. The books teach children words like “drag queen” and “intersex,” Fox News reported in November.
One book for pre-K children (ages 4-5) celebrates “pride parades,” which regularly feature public homosexual acts and nudity. Another book targeting kindergarteners (ages 5-6) titled “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” celebrates a same-sex “wedding.”
For second graders (ages 7-8), MCPS approved a book titled “My Rainbow” about a black “transgender” child. A book for third graders (ages 8-9), “Prince and Knight,” centers around a male homosexual relationship, and a book for fourth graders (ages 9-10), “Love Violet,” glorifies a young girl’s lesbian tendencies.
MCPS Staff: as we honor INTERSEX Awareness Day, checkout the main character of the Grade6 book CATTYWAMPUS, which was recently approved for instructional materials! Let’s all learn more about the “I” in LGBTQIA+ pic.twitter.com/7x6OccuGlk
— LGBTQ at MCPS (@mcps_lgbtq) October 28, 2022
Though MCPS told Fox News at the time that it allowed parents to opt their children out of the books, a presentation by the district from August urged teachers to reject opt-out requests.
The presentation also encouraged teachers to chastise students who describe transgenderism as “weird.”
Over 70 parents protested the district’s new policy at a Montgomery County School Board meeting last week, the Daily Caller reported.
“My child, you know, he’s gonna be reading ‘My Rainbow’ next year,” one mother of a first grader at MCPS told the Daily Caller. “He’s gonna be learning words like cisgender and transgender. That’s really heavy for his age.”
MCPS promotes radical LGBT ideology starting in elementary school
Montgomery County Public Schools, the largest school district in Maryland and one of the 20 largest in the U.S., is known for radical LGBT activism.
The district has embedded LGBT ideology throughout its curricula, from kindergarten through high school.
In 2020, MCPS became the first school district in the country to introduce an “LGBTQ studies” course, which is now offered at several high schools in the district. The curriculum for the course was written by homosexual and “transgender” students and members of a local LGBT activist group.
MCPS includes “LGBTQ references” in high school U.S. history classes, as well.
The district, which celebrates “pride month,” has also performed audits to promote “LGBTQ related content” and examples in math, science, and social studies classes, including for grades K-5, according to an MCPS presentation from 2020. The presentation notes that MCPS has partnered with the Human Rights Campaign, the largest pro-LGBT pressure group in the U.S. and an outspoken supporter of “sex changes” for children.
Today we celebrated Pronoun Day, so proud to work in a school where we work towards inclusivity and acceptance of all. 🏳️🌈@NorthwestJags @GSA_NWHS pic.twitter.com/cwwWhcMC0y
— Danielle Abdelsalam (@NWJagsAP) October 20, 2022
A teenager who attended a Montgomery County middle school and began identifying as “non-binary” at age 14 told the Washington Post in 2021 that her school “taught lessons about sexual orientation and gender identity in health class.”
Last year, MCPS sparked outrage for moving to adopt a “health framework” that includes sexuality lessons beginning in pre-K.
Under the framework, which MCPS deleted from its website after criticism, pre-K children would be taught about “same-gender families” and “bodily autonomy.” Kindergarteners would be instructed to “recognize a range of ways people express their identity and gender” and learn about “people of all gender identities.”
Parents would not be able to opt their children out of the lessons before the fourth grade.
In May, MCPS’ Cedar Grove Elementary faced backlash for encouraging students to honor the “pride” flag while reciting LGBT “values.” In August, MCPS again stoked controversy for giving middle schoolers an assignment to create an LGBT flag or write a letter asking a “transgender” author “to speak to our school.”
A mother with multiple children in the school district told The Daily Signal last month that her second-grade daughter was exposed to a video at Kensington Parkwood Elementary School “celebrating Pride Month” and promoting LGBT activists, including child sex abuser Harvey Milk. The video taught children terms such as “lesbian” and “transgender.”
She added that her son, who attends MCPS’ North Bethesda Middle School, has a “pride flag” in all of his classrooms.
“I don’t feel, as a parent, this is appropriate for my child,” she said. “I felt … I had no power over my own kids’ education.”
LGBT clubs in every school
Montgomery County Public Schools’ promotion of LGBT ideology impacts virtually every school and student in the district.
Each MCPS middle school and high school has a LGBT school club, which is typically referred to as a “Gender and Sexuality Alliance” (GSA), according to Bethesda magazine.
A student-led group called MoCo Pride Student Association coordinates the GSAs, and an activist with a local LGBT group “meets regularly” with them, news site MoCo360 reported.
MCPS has at least five elementary schools with LGBT clubs, including a school named after Bayard Rustin, a socialist homosexual activist. The elementary school group are dubbed “Rainbow Clubs.”
The work of #equity is never done! We want ALL of our students to see themselves or their families reflected in our literature, regardless of race, ability, or sexuality. I am loving the thoughtful conversations going on in our classrooms! 🫶🏽 @mcps_lgbtq #RepresentationMatters pic.twitter.com/uH1gSG1Ozm
— Brookhaven ES Community School (@BrookhavenCSL) January 26, 2023
MCPS has a website specifically dedicated to “LGBTQ” issues that predictably pushes pro-LGBT “resources” and even “trans health care” to students, parents, and staff. A Twitter account titled “LGBTQ at MCPS” documents new pro-LGBT developments at MCPS, sometimes on a daily basis.
The school district also hosts annual “Pride Town Halls.” One such event in 2021 focused on “normalizing diverse gender identities in schools,” according to MoCo360.
And MCPS heavily indoctrinates teachers in LGBT ideology, including with mandatory annual training, pushing them to engage in LGBT activism with students. The district encourages teachers to give their pronouns to students when introducing themselves and to provide them with forms to specify their “preferred name and pronouns.”
Lane Cogdill, a “non-binary,” “genderqueer” teacher at MCPS’ Silver Spring International Middle School, told Fox News in February that she “introduce[s] and explain[s]” her “gender identity” when she meets students each school year.
Cogdill added that she tells children to refer to her as “Mx.,” rather than Mr. or Ms., and with the pronouns “ze” and “zir.”
Hiding kids’ ‘transgender status,’ gender ‘transitions’
While indoctrinating students in LGBT ideology, MCPS cuts parents out of their children’s gender issues, actively hiding students’ “preferred pronouns” and “transition” procedures.
The district’s “gender identity” guidelines for 2022-2023 explicitly instruct teachers to keep the “transgender status” of students secret.
“All students have a right to privacy. This includes the right to keep private one’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation at school,” the guidelines state.
“School staff members should address students by the name and pronoun corresponding to the gender identity” of the student’s choice and “make efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the student’s transgender status,” the guidelines add.
As of 2022, students can use “gender X” markers on documents by completing a form with a counselor.
READ: Maryland’s largest school district reports 582% increase in gender nonconforming students
More than 500 MCPS students — dozens of them in elementary school — have filled out forms declaring that they are “transgender,” according to data from the school district.
At the same time, MCPS’ guidelines state that staff should use a “transgender” student’s real name and pronouns with parents unless the student says otherwise.
Schools must also conceal “medical information” (such as information about so-called “gender transitions”) of “transgender students.” At least seven other of the top 20 largest schools in the U.S. have similar policies in place.
READ: President of American College of Pediatricians slams transgender drugs as ‘child abuse’
Teachers at MCPS have publicly admitted to hiding children’s gender issues from parents: Cogdill told Fox News that she “always” keeps students’ names and pronouns secret when asked, “especially” from parents.
Moreover, MCPS’ guidelines state that students must be allowed to use bathrooms for the opposite sex:
Where facilities are designated by gender, students must be provided access to gender-specific facilities (e.g., bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms) in alignment with their consistently asserted gender identity.
Male students’ access to girls’ bathrooms at school has repeatedly led to assaults in recent years. In 2018, a gender-confused boy sexually assaulted a 5-year-old girl at a public elementary school in Georgia, after the Decatur school district began allowing students to use the bathrooms of their preference. In Virginia, a “gender fluid” boy raped a female classmate in the girls’ bathroom of a Loudoun County high school in 2021. The school board covered up the assault, leading to criminal charges against the superintendent.
MCPS additionally allows students to compete on sports teams designated for the opposite sex.
READ: Gender-confused male charged with beating up two girls in high school bathroom
But the Maryland school district’s incessant LGBT activism has led to growing parental pushback.
Parents filed a lawsuit in 2021 attempting to force the district to give parents access to school records about students’ gender and name preferences. An Obama-appointed federal judge threw out the lawsuit in 2022, but litigation is ongoing.
The conservative pro-parent organization Moms for Liberty has said that it is also considering legal action against MCPS’ “gender identity” guidelines.
An online petition denouncing the district’s promotion of pro-LGBT books in elementary school last year racked up more than 43,000 signatures.