On LGBTQ Storybooks, Mahmoud v. Taylor, and the Newton Public Schools
The landmark SCOTUS decision will have big impacts for MA parents, especially in towns like Newton where the Kool-Aid flows freely and gender indoctrination is the rule.
Ever since the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) announced back in January that they would hear the case of a group of religious Maryland parents whose public school denied their right to opt their elementary-schoolers out of classroom lessons involving sexuality and gender-themed storybooks, we knew the ruling would be important. The outcome of this case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, wouldn’t only matter because the Muslim, Jewish and Christian plaintiff parents involved deserved to have their rights respected. It would matter because we know that the same disrespect and disregard experienced by those parents happens to parents in MA as well.
Oral arguments were heard in April, and we tuned in (If you haven’t listened, it’s fascinating, and you can still hear them here). We thought the better arguments were on the side of the parents, but we still had to wait until the end of June to see how it landed. How would SCOTUS rule? Knowing what a pro-parent ruling could mean for MA families, we were on pins and needles waiting for the ruling. For better or for worse, the outcome of Mahmoud v. Taylor would matter for Massachusetts.
As we waited, we continued to learn of more examples of MA parents who, just like in Mahmoud v. Taylor, were at loggerheads with their local schools over whether or not teachers should be allowed to sneak gender confusion into storytime without their consent (or even advance notice). One example that popped up just last month, shared in the Massachusetts Informed Parents Facebook group, was from a Newton, MA elementary school where the second graders were being read “nonfiction texts” about Pride Month.
The teacher email depicted didn’t name the Pride-related texts in question, but the group member who posted it also shared a photo from inside the classroom that clearly depicted multiple sexuality and gender-related books.
Some of these books are wholly unobjectionable, of course. But then there are others, like Twas the Night Before PRIDE that contains lines like: “So Pride’s not just about tutus and rainbow suspenders. It’s about rights for queers and all our beautiful genders,” and PRIDE: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, a boring book that lionizes a troubled man who had at least one sexual relationship with a teenage boy (a fact thankfully not mentioned) and was assassinated (a fact which was). Are these the books referred to in the email? If so, surely parents should have a right to weigh in on whether or not their 7-year old is taught these things, yes? But according to the parent involved (and evidenced by the fact that the teacher’s email only notified parents after they were in the “middle” of reading one of the books), the Newton Public Schools said no.
This was outrageous, but not totally shocking. If you have followed public education in MA over the last several years you probably already know that Newton is a hotbed of radical woke nonsense. Newton has raised eyebrows for having a drag queen perform for minors during the school day (more than once), promoting racially segregated affinity groups, students losing valuable class time due to an illegal teacher strike, and so much more. Defending Education’s Indoctrination Map has 26 entries for Newton, which would probably earn the NPS some sort of medal in the indoctrination olympics, if such medals were given. But while the NPS’s well-earned bad reputation includes a variety of leftist shenanigans, this particular issue with storybooks wasn’t new. We know this isn’t the first time the NPS has read books about sexuality and gender identity to young children without advance notice or consent from parents. Another Newton parent posted the classroom newsletter below in the MIP Facebook group last year, with the question: “What is the process for opting out my six year old from such material?”
After receiving this newsletter the parent, blindsided by gender identity being brought into the first grade classroom under the banner of “social justice,” had requested an opt out from the following week’s lesson. The district sent this response, which they shared in the comments.
So in other words, the Newton Public Schools said no. The NPS’s version of “inclusion” meant forcing impressionable 6-year olds at one of their elementary schools into confusing and destructive lessons about girls-in-boy-bodies and they/them pronouns against the express wishes of their parents.
We learned that the school where this happened was was Bowen Elementary, and thanks to a public records request by Massachusetts Family Institute, we obtained the whole lesson. This lesson, titled “Diversity: Gender Identity,” features a reading of the book Introducing Teddy, an introduction to the concept of “identifying as both genders,” and instructions to children to discuss their gender identity with a partner. You can download it and read it for yourself below.
While this lesson was given at Bowen, we know using this book wasn’t limited to one classroom or one elementary. It was based on guidance given to staff for K-5 students districtwide.
As part of the same records request, MFI also uncovered an indoctrination how-to manual geared towards the NPS’s youngest students. Newton’s K-5 Gender Anti-Bias Library: Book Discussion Guides and Virtual Read Alouds is one of the worst examples of district-sponsored gender ideology brainwashing we’ve seen in MA so far - and it includes the lesson on Introducing Teddy.
This 70-page “library” contains a potpourri of leftist critical theory-infused schlock (“decolonizing gender,” “anti-oppressive,” etc.), a twisted statement on student rights that includes granting all students access to LGBTQ “educational websites,” an introduction to pronouns and neopronouns, and gender ideology-focused storybook lessons for every grade. All of this is prefaced with a statement that clearly demonstrates that refusing parent opt-outs for these types of topics, including the lessons with books like Introducing Teddy, is the rule, not the exception. The NPS claims to “respect parental rights in accordance with Massachusetts state (opt out) law,” but then go on to interpret that law in the most restrictive and anti-parental-rights way possible, making opting out impossible by inserting curriculum and lessons related to gender and sexuality education “across all grade levels.”
The books used in lessons provided in this guide are:
Red
Pink is for Boys
Introducing Teddy
They, She, He: Easy as ABC
I Am Jazz
Jacob’s School Play
When Aiden Became a Brother
My Rainbow
It Feels Good to Be Yourself
Calvin
What Are Your Words? and
Who Are You?
All of these books unmistakably promote a view of gender and gender identity that contradict the convictions of many families, especially families of faith.
But the NPS didn’t care about that. Not only does the guide fail to make any provision for these families, it overtly sets the tone that opt outs will not be granted. It also undermines parents by appealing to student “rights,” and inserting subversive nuggets into the curriculum like the video on the left below which contains an extra helping of gender ideology to affirm the synthetic identities of gender-confused kids “who do not feel supported at home.”
To read the entire elementary gender indoctrination “library,” download it below.
Having seen the NPS’s true colors in the document above, we weren’t too surprised when a social media post went viral last November with yet another claim of Newton forcing gender brainwashing on little kids. According to the post, a Newton elementary school had declared “transgender week,” and a parent was informed that the teaching was mandatory - no opt outs.
Had the NPS’s cramming down of gender insanity on littles finally gone so far that it even upset a parent who self-identifies as a “strong advocate for transgender and acceptance?” It seems it had.
As the post gained traction online, it prompted an excellent deep-dive report from national outlet The Daily Signal. According to their report, in October 2024, the Newton School Committee officially adopted guidance stating that parents whose children are enrolled in Newton Public Schools can’t opt them out of lessons on sexual orientation or gender identity. NPS’s Guidance on the Basis of Gender Identity can be read in full online here, with the sections relevant to opt-out below.
Transgender Awareness Week is a real observance (we’ve reported on it before through our Sex on the School Calendar), but we didn’t have any details about what that looked like in Newton. Was what this anonymous parent said true about the NPS? It wasn’t just the Daily Signal that wanted answers - many people in the community did, too. Some of them decided to pose their questions on the original post, which was still up in the Newton Community Facebook group. The discussion took an interesting turn as Anna Nolin, NPS Superintendent, chimed in.
So were there plans for Transgender Awareness Week, or weren’t there? Who was correct, the building principal or the superintendent?
In the same thread, which grew to hundreds of comments, Superintendent Nolin responds to one person by saying: “There is no such thing as trans lessons.”
This was a curious statement, especially given the fact that MFI’s public records request had revealed gender identity lessons. Wouldn’t that count as a “trans lesson?” What was actually going on in Newton? To find out, MFI did another public records request, this time specifically for items related to the November 2024 Transgender Awareness Week.
The results of this request, which you can download in its entirety below, revealed two key findings relevant to Nolin’s claims. She may have been correct that there weren’t any “specific lessons planned for transgender week.” But her claim that there is no such thing as “trans lessons” was, for all intents and purposes, demonstrably false.
The documents also revealed that quite a few Newton parents, concerned about the claims in the viral post, had emailed their child’s elementary school. The responses to these emails showed no evidence of specific lessons planned for Transgender Awareness Week. Some did, however, avoid the larger question of that type of instruction in general. Here is one example.
This parent emailed a first grade teacher at Bowen Elementary to let her know that they didn’t want their child being present for discussions on transgenderism.
The parent’s email then appears to have been forwarded to Bowen Principal Diana Guzzi (she/her/hers), who responds with an impersonal (and now all-too-familiar) woke word salad disclaimer telling the parent why their opt out request will not be honored.
The parent follows up with a point-blank question, “Can you please let us know what you will be teaching in his classroom this week.” The teacher responds, “There are no plans to teach about transgender week in class this week.” (Emphasis ours.)
So in other words, we don’t have any plans to talk specifically about transgender week (this week!), but even if we did, you couldn’t opt your kid out. Which is pretty much what the parent in the viral Facebook post said.
This PRR also contained a second grade lesson on gender identity, which while not directly tied to Transgender Awareness Week, would certainly fall into anyone’s common sense definition of what a “trans lesson” would look like.
This lesson is a perfect example of how the NPS plays their semantic shell game. It’s not a “trans lesson,” it’s understanding the dimensions of gender. It’s not sex ed, it’s social studies. We aren’t teaching lessons for Transgender Awareness Week (that Facebook post is fake news!) - we are teaching gender identity all year round.
Bowen Elementary is disproportionately represented in the PRR documents, and in the parent complaints we have seen. Newton has 15 elementary schools, yet Bowen comes up over and over. If you are a Bowen parent and you aren’t already paying attention to the pervasive indoctrination happening at your child’s school, here’s your friendly tap on the shoulder. Get tuned in, or pull your kid out ASAP.
Don’t take it from us. Take it from Arrow the Bobcat, Bowen’s mascot.
But as egregious as the indoctrination is at Bowen, we know this is a districtwide issue. When Superintendent Nolin, who has only been in Newton since 2023, said there were “no such thing as trans lessons,” was she unaware of what was being taught in her own district? Or did she know, and she thought it was okay to play misleading word games with parents and gaslight them about what’s actually being put in front of their kids?
Regardless of who knew what when, and what does (or does not) constitute a “trans lesson,” as of the end of the 2024-2025 school year, parental rights were still being denied in Newton and NPS students were still being indoctrinated with gender ideology under the watchful eye of Superintendent Nolin and the Newton School Committee. It’s their responsibility, and now thanks to some brave parents in Maryland, it’s their problem.
Back to Mahmoud v. Taylor. When we first heard that SCOTUS was going to weigh in on a case related to LGBTQ storybooks and parental rights, we instantly thought of what we knew was happening in Newton. Newton is not the only MA district that does this, for sure, but it may be the most overt. Just like in Mahmoud, the NPS crams these same types of books down on elementary school students with no opportunity for parents to opt out. We have the receipts for this. In fact, some of the very same titles mentioned in Mahmoud, My Rainbow and What are Your Words?, are the subjects of lessons from the NPS’s K-5 Gender Anti-Bias Library! And while the parents in Mahmoud were objecting on religious grounds, we have no reason to believe Newton would make an accommodation for religious people, either. We know that many Newton parents are demoralized by their districts’ dogged determination to pour the kool-aid of gender confusion down their children’s throats. We were hoping SCOTUS, through Mahmoud, would give them - and parents in similar districts nationwide - a tool to fight back. And on June 27th, SCOTUS came through.
By a 6-3 majority, SCOTUS decided on behalf of the Maryland parents who had been denied the opt out. The court reaffirmed the rights of these parents to the free exercise of religion, which in this case, means the school can’t force their kids to read these types of books. The broader legal ramifications of this decision and the details of how it will specifically impact policy in local schools remains to be seen. But the big picture is, SCOTUS has affirmed that when it comes to directing the faith development of children, parents still have the final say, even - and perhaps especially - when it comes to gender identity and sexuality.
Newton Public Schools, and other MA districts that have shamelessly stepped between parents and their children, consider yourself on notice. You have been playing fast and loose with the opt out law, and with parental rights. That changes now. You have the rest of the summer to get your houses in order. We will be watching to see that you do.
Mom and Dad, this Supreme Court decision serves as a powerful reminder that standing up for your kids matters. Your voice can make a difference. The parents at the heart of Mahmoud v. Taylor probably didn’t think their effort to protect their kids would end up at SCOTUS, but they just kept moving forward, and didn’t take “no” for an answer. If they had given up, we wouldn’t have this decision today. We owe them, their attorneys, and six common-sense SCOTUS justices a huge debt of gratitude.
In preparation for the coming school year, the Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center is working on some helpful tools that you can use to make sure your school district respects your opt out rights under Mahmoud v. Taylor. We will share those tools here when they are ready. Make sure to subscribe to this substack to get this information delivered straight to your inbox!
It’s a shame it took a SCOTUS decision to get some MA districts to tap the brakes on shoving gender confusion down the throats of little kids, but it is a victory we will gladly celebrate.
UPDATE 7/25/25 - The MLLC legal advisory letter and sample opt out letters are here! Check out our new post to read and download them today.
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