A federal judge granted a Lexington father a preliminary injunction, permitting his son to leave school lessons featuring LGBT material.
“While defendants contend that implementing the notice and opt-out procedures contemplated by plaintiff’s proposed injunction would burden them to some degree, any potential harm they face does not outweigh that faced by plaintiff — particularly where defendants concede that [the parent’s son] must be opted out of at least some materials,” U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV wrote in the order.
“Under well-established constitutional principles, defendants cannot force plaintiff to choose between foregoing the valuable benefit of having his child attend public kindergarten and exposing his child to materials that would burden his free exercise of religion,” the judge added.
The decision aligns with a June ruling by the Supreme Court, which decided that parents have the right to opt their children out of LGBT classroom lessons.
A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. “The Board’s introduction of the ‘LGBTQ+-inclusive’ storybooks, along with its decision to withhold opt-outs, places an unconstitutional burden on the parents’ rights to the free exercise of their religion. The parents have therefore shown that they are likely to succeed in their free exercise claims. They have likewise shown entitlement to a preliminary injunction pending the completion of this lawsuit.”
The Lexington father used the Supreme Court decision to bolster his case, writing, “As in that case, a parent has objected to his child being shown certain materials at school concerning LGBTQ+ relationships or values on the ground that the materials pose a threat of undermining the religious beliefs and practices the parent wants to instill in his child.”
