Exclusive | Christian family sues Bay Area school district over sex, gender lessons that violate religious beliefs

A Bay Area Christian couple is taking the Sunnyvale school district to court — alleging their child’s elementary school refused to let them opt out of sex and gender identity lessons that contradict their religious beliefs.

Justin and Rose Taylor, both devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, claim the district flatly declined to excuse their two elementary-aged children from lessons on gender transitions and same-sex relationships in violation of a Supreme Court decision last year that affirmed the rights of parents to opt out of such material on religious grounds.

That court decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor held that a group of Muslim, Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox parents in suburban Maryland could opt out of LGBTQ+ lessons at their public schools.

Yet the Taylors, Sunnyvale residents with four children, were told in February that similar LGBTQ+ lessons in Sunnyvale schools were simply “not optional,” according to a copy of a lawsuit filed in California’s Northern District on Tuesday.

“Our children are the most cherished part of our lives,” the couple told The Post in a statement. “We know and love them best and should be the ones deciding when and how they learn about sensitive topics regarding sexuality and gender.”

“Fortunately, the Supreme Court has recognized that right for religious parents nationwide. We hope that Sunnyvale can choose to acknowledge and respect our role as parents to direct the moral upbringing of our children,” they added.

The Taylors argued in the legal complaint that Sunnyvale’s LGBTQ+ instruction “goes far beyond teaching kindness and respect,” instilling what they call an “ideological view of gender and sexuality” that undermines their family’s moral values.

The district uses an LGBTQ+ teaching guide that tells instructors to incorporate sexuality and gender-related instruction into seemingly unrelated subjects — even math.

The teaching guide created by the Santa Clara County Office of Education, which oversees the Sunnyvale district, tells teachers to incorporate “LGBTQ+ inclusion” into math problems, such as using problems related to “marriage equality, gender-neutral bathrooms, and LGBTQ+ rights” and to celebrate queer mathematicians.

One recommended book the Taylors objected to, called Pride Puppy, “invites three- and four-year-olds to look for images of things they might find at a pride parade, including an ‘intersex [flag],’ a ‘[drag] king’ and ‘[drag] queen,’ ‘leather,’ ‘underwear,’ and an image of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker, Marsha P. Johnson.”

Another kids’ book cited in the lawsuit, called “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish” replaces the lyrics of the classic children’s tune “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round” to celebrate drag.

Named defendants in the lawsuit include the Sunnyvale school district; Superintendent Gudiel Crosthwaite; school board members Peggy Brewster, Isabel Jubes-Flamerich, Evelyn Castillo Profeta, Michelle Magniot and Bridget Watson; Sunnyvale director of student support services Paul Slayton; and Cumberland Elementary interim Principal Shana Riehl.

The Taylors emailed Riehl and other school officials in September 2025, a few months after the SCOTUS ruling, and requested that their children be excused from lessons on same‑sex marriage,
same-sex relationships or gender identity.

Slayton wrote in an email in January 2026 that the district’s lawyers were “a bit confused” about how to respond to opt-out requests — then followed up with a formal response in early February claiming the Supreme Court ruling “does not override California’s statutory requirements governing instructional content,” according to the lawsuit.

“Accordingly, and after further review, Sunnyvale School District is not granting opt-outs from LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum or storybooks that are part of our adopted educational program,” Slayton wrote in an email cited in the lawsuit.

“The Constitution doesn’t come with a California carveout,” said Michael O’Brien, the Taylors’ attorney and counsel at Becket Fund, a pro-religious liberty group that is supporting the lawsuit.

“Yet Sunnyvale is acting as if it does—attempting to sidestep Mahmoud and override the Taylors’ clearly protected parental rights while paying lip service to the very diversity the Taylors represent. We’re confident the federal courts will reject that approach.”

After the Supreme Court’s Mahmoud v. Taylor decision in June 2025, the Sunnyvale school board passed a resolution “reaffirming Sunnyvale’s commitment to safe, inclusive schools” that, in part, vowed that the “safety and dignity” of LGBTQ+ students won’t be compromised for the “comfort of adults or institutional caution.”

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