The Left hasn’t given up on indoctrinating America’s children. After years of openly pushing gender ideology, widespread conservative opposition, channeled through President Trump, has forced gender ideologues to hunker down. Conservatives shouldn’t get complacent in what may prove to be nothing more than the eye of the storm.
The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case out of Montgomery County, Maryland called Mahmoud v. Taylor. In that case, parents are challenging their local school district’s policy prohibiting parents from opting their pre-kindergarten and elementary school-aged children out of books that promote gender ideology. These books, as the school district’s attorney admitted when pushed by Justice Neil Gorsuch, were included in the curriculum to “influence” the children. Our amicus briefs in the Mahmoud case have drawn interest across the entire spectrum of the conservative movement, from a presentation at Grover Norquist’s weekly meeting of conservatives and libertarians to the WallBuilders podcast.
The parents in Mahmoud, who are from diverse religious backgrounds, are asking the Supreme Court to uphold the right of religious parents to opt their children out of school materials that indoctrinate their children in an ideology that fundamentally conflicts with their religious values. Given the Court’s recent sympathy to religious liberty arguments, the parents’ claim is likely to succeed. For several reasons, however, a religious liberty win in Mahmoud will be only one step in the right direction.
First, if the Court limits its ruling to religious parents, the children of nonreligious parents will still be exposed to gender indoctrination. Nonreligious parents have a right to protect their children from aggressive ideologues as well. As Justice Elena Kagan noted during Mahmoud’s oral arguments, “I too was struck by these . . . books . . . on matters concerning sexuality, I suspect there are a lot of non-religious parents who weren’t all that thrilled about this.” If the religious parents in this case win, leftist school districts across the country may reluctantly adopt opt-out policies for parents who raise religious objections, but they will be able to continue to indoctrinate the children of nonreligious parents unless and until another lawsuit succeeds on broader parental rights grounds.
Second, despite broad opposition among American voters to things like male participation in women’s sports and the success of President Trump’s “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you” advertisement, gender ideology still flexes its influence when politicians of the Left step out of line. Thus, a swarm of local politicians attacked Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton for saying that such competitions are unfair.
And, whether out of fear or fealty, many politicians are still holding the woke line. While California Governor Gavin Newsom admitted the unfairness as well, he refused to take any policy steps until the federal government threatened to revoke federal funding from California- which ended up being an absurd half-measure (giving awards to both the transgender winners and the highest-finishing female contestant).
When asked by the New York Times’ Ross Douthat whether Democrats could protect women’s sports as an example of moderating on culture war issues, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy would not budge, saying that the benefits that athletes gain from being part of a team outweigh fairness concerns.
In Maine, the state Speaker of the House stripped a member of voting privileges (an action later reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court) for daring to criticize state officials who allowed a male athlete to compete in, and subsequently “win,” the high school girls’ pole-vaulting championship. This came after Governor Janet Mills flouted the Trump Administration’s demand that states stop allowing boys to participate in girls’ sports.
The Left’s insistent promotion of gender ideology has receded somewhat from the public’s attention in the wake of the extremely active early months of President Trump’s second administration, but that doesn’t mean the war for sanity has been won. Conservatives should celebrate a potential victory from the Supreme Court in Mahmoud, but must not give up the fight to root woke indoctrination out of schools and sports. The Left certainly has not.
Marc Wheat is the General Counsel for Advancing American Freedom.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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