One of Maryland’s wealthiest school districts has moved forward with an LGBTQ-inclusive book list for elementary school students while declining to recommend several children’s books that promote “American values.”
According to Fox News, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) showed a list of LGBTQ+ books via Powerpoint that would be offered to pre-k through fifth-grade students.
The list, which teaches kids terms like “drag queen” and “intersex”, reportedly aims to “reduce stigmatization and marginalization of transgender and gender nonconforming students.”
“All students deserve to see themselves in their school and classroom, including students who identify as LGBTQ+ and come from LGBTQ+ headed families and have family members that are a part of the LGBTQ+ community,” the presentation states. “There are no planned explicit lessons related to gender and sexuality, but these books do mean that LGBTQ+ identities will be made visible. Inclusive curricula support a student’s ability to empathize, connect, and collaborate with a diverse group of peers, and encourage respect for all.”
It adds, “No child, or adult, who does not agree with or understand another student’s gender identity or expression or their sexual identity is asked to change how they feel about it.”
The presentation was a part of a professional development workshop back in August and recommends to staff to “use five of the books by the end of December.”
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One book recommended for four-year-old children is “Pride Puppy”, which teaches terms like “intersex,” “drag king,” and “drag queen”. Another book, “Marsha P. Johnson”, also explores cross-dressing and drag performances.
Meanwhile, the school district declined to carry and provide students with a kid’s book series that celebrates conservative leaders.
Bethany Mandel, the editor of the Heroes of Liberty book series, told Fox that MCPS recently declined to recommend three non-fiction children’s books that were donated to the school district by Heroes of Liberty Inc.
The books, recommended for students grades 2-6, were about Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, founding father Alexander Hamilton, and libertarian economist Thomas Sowell.
On September 30, MCPS declined to recommend “Thomas Sowell: A Self-Made Man” based on a “weakness” that “the publisher has a stated mission of creating books with ‘the American values that made this country great.'”
Mandel says the activist agenda comes straight from the publishing industry. “All these publishing houses are controlled by woke ideology and I have heard from people who are familiar with the query process (that) agents are only looking for LGBTQ books. Anything with an angle that is sort of gender-focused,” she said.
582% Increase in Non-Binary Identifying Students in District
As CBN News reported, Westland Middle School, which is a part of MCPS, also encouraged middle school students to read a book and complete assignments this summer that explored themes of gender transition, sexual identity, and cross-dressing.
As students are being inundated with transgender ideology it is reflected in how they identify.
According to data based on MCPS’ student intake forms, there was a 582% increase in the number of students identifying as non-binary over two years.
A review by grade level shows most of the MCPS middle school students say they are non-binary, KUTV reports.
MCPS’ recent inclusive move is just the latest example from the ongoing battle over LGBT-activist books, some with obscene content, in schools and public libraries across the nation.
Some of New York’s top private schools have recommended books for their students’ summer reading lists that explore abortion, gender transition for children, homosexual relationships, and cross-dressing.
Parents Vote Against Funding Library in Michigan
Parents in Jamestown Township, Michigan, have rejected a large part of their local library’s annual budget because it contains books that promote the LGBTQ agenda.
“These are very challenging times for libraries in general and there is a huge increase in a number of materials that have been challenged,” Carol Dawe of the Lakeland Library Cooperative told Wood-TV.
Reports indicate 90 books contain LGBT material out of 67,000 in the library, but Ria Faber said the LGBT-related material does not reflect the town’s conservative values.
“It should not be something that children can pick up accidentally and bring home and then parents are surprised by what they see in the book,” she said.
CBN News has reached out to Montgomery County Public School for comment. At the time of publication, we have not heard back.
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