A Silicon Valley couple sued their school district on June 22, alleging elementary school officials didn’t give them notice, or an option to opt-out, and placed their children in sex and gender identity lessons that go against the parents’ religious beliefs.
Justin and Rose Taylor, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have four children, including a rising third-grade son and rising first-grade daughter at Cumberland Elementary School in the Sunnyvale School District.
The suit said the district has a comprehensive LGBT curriculum and includes instruction to “disrupt traditional definitions of the family through lessons on gender identity.”
“But [many] Americans wish to present a different moral message to their children,” it states.
The lawsuit alleges that by not allowing an opt-out, Sunnyvale violated the “parents’ constitutional rights to direct the education and upbringing of their children in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
In September 2025, the district board adopted a resolution that said “legal opt-out provisions may exist,” but declared “our first responsibility is to remind families of the richness of what ‘opting in’” provides.
In the same month, the couple directly asked the district to notify them and opt their children out of all lessons in which LGBT-related storybooks or similar materials would be used.
In their request, the couple referenced Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case last year in which the Supreme Court held that a Maryland public school board’s instruction of “LGBTQ+-inclusive” storybooks, combined with withholding notice to parents and forbidding opt outs, was unconstitutional.
In October 2025, the district replied to the Taylors’ initial request with a form containing various opt out options, including any instructions that “conflict with [parents’] religious beliefs or moral convictions” and in November, directed school librarians to not “check out material that includes LGBTQ+ or Gender Identity material” to the Taylors.
Months after the initial request, the district officially denied the Taylors’ request for notice and opt-out for their children, saying the instruction is “not optional and is not subject to parent opt-out provisions,” and that Mahmoud v. Taylor did not give parents an automatic right to opt their children out of “required curriculum.”
The suit said the couple sent the district a letter on April 1, 2026, explaining the previous Supreme Court ruling and why the denial violates the Taylors’ First Amendment rights. The district acknowledged it received the letter but still didn’t grant an opt-out.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Sunnyvale School District but did not hear back by the time of publication.
The suit states that the Taylors “believe that biological sex reflects divine creation, that sex and gender are inseparable, and that children should be encouraged to accept their sex and to live accordingly,” quoting the majority opinion in the Supreme Court case.
The suit said that parents with religious objections are required to receive a notice and the choice to opt out when LGBT books and similar material is being taught, according to the Mahmoud decision.
The Santa Clara County Office of Education, which oversees Sunnyvale, instructs the district to include LGBT material across various subject matters, including health and science lessons teaching “gender identity and sexual orientation,” and that including such material in “mathematics curriculum is crucial.”
The suit said one book, “Pride Puppy,” invites elementary-age children to look for images of what they might find at a pride parade, including an intersex flag, drag king and drag queen, and a sex worker.
Another one, “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish,” changes the lyrics of the children’s song “The Wheels on the Bus” to celebrate drag.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Taylors but did not hear back by the time of publication. The couple is seeking a jury trial.
