Maryland county agrees to pay $1.5M after parents’ bid to exempt children from LGBTQ-themed books

Montgomery County, Maryland, agreed to pay parents $1.5 million on Feb. 19 in a lawsuit over LGBT curricula in public schools, with the decision coming after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the families last year.

The ruling in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, consisting of a permanent injunction as well as a settlement between the parents and Montgomery County, holds that the county board of education must notify parents “in advance” when school officials plan to teach gender- or sexuality-related materials in classrooms.

School officials will be required to allow parents “to have their children excused from that instruction,” the agreement stipulates.

The resolution also holds that the parents are “entitled to reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.” The religious liberty law firm Becket, which represented the parents in the dispute, said on Feb. 20 that the costs consist of $1.5 million in damages.

A Becket spokesman told EWTN News that the ruling specifically requires Montgomery County “to notify all parents of all instructional materials, including a specific breakout by grade level of instruction that addresses issues around gender and sexuality.”

The order comes after the Supreme Court on June 27, 2025, ruled in favor of the parents, granting them a temporary injunction against the county’s narrow opt-out rules while the case played out in lower courts.

The high court’s 2025 ruling signaled that the parents were likely to succeed in their lawsuit, something the Feb. 19 agreement acknowledged.

Eric Baxter, senior attorney with Becket, said on Feb. 20 that in light of the ruling, “public schools nationwide are on notice: Running roughshod over parental rights and religious freedom isn’t just illegal — it’s costly.”

“This settlement enforces the Supreme Court’s ruling and ensures parents, not government bureaucrats, have the final say in how their children are raised,” he said.

The Supreme Court in June 2025 said the materials at dispute in the lawsuit were “designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated, and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected.” The lessons included promotions of same-sex “marriages.”

The material goes beyond mere “exposure,” the justices said, and “burdens the parents’ right to the free exercise of religion.”