Letters to the Editor: Decision allowing parents to ‘opt out’ of LGBTQ+ stories sets a dangerous precedent

To the editor: After reading the full text of the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud vs. Taylor, there’s no doubt in my mind that this precedent will be used to limit the ability of public schools to teach LGBTQ+ history at all levels, despite some ambiguous and unconvincing sops to age appropriateness (“California law faces revise as high court allows parents to ‘opt out’ of LGBTQ+ school stories,” June 27).

When parents are told they can pick and choose what history is taught to their children based on their religion, the door is opened to ignorance, persecution and the proverbial doom of repeating history’s past mistakes.

In what sounded disturbingly like a political, not judicial, decision, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. made reference to the fact that “many Americans” oppose same-sex marriage, as if that was a justification for denying the reality of years of discrimination. He awkwardly threw in, as an aside, that in Maryland same-sex marriage is the law and then acted as if this didn’t matter where children’s education was concerned. He couldn’t disguise his disgust at the thought of a same-sex marriage being roundly celebrated even in a children’s fairy-tale book.

Sadly, four justices who I might have thought knew better went along.

Thomas Bailey, Long Beach

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To the editor: As a Christian, I am deeply disheartened by the Supreme Court’s decision to allow parents to use religious beliefs as grounds for opting their children out of books featuring LGBTQ+ characters. This ruling raises concerns about other scenarios where religious beliefs might be used to exclude books that depict interracial couples, women working, men doing household chores, racial equality, evolution, non-Christian religions, civil rights and much more. Many Christians have historically held these beliefs, and it is likely that many still do, which could lead to widespread opt-outs of important literature, science and historical topics.

Public education has been and continues to be a strength of our country. It exposes us to facts, of course, but also the great diversity of people and ideas so that we are not divided into and by small silos of information.

Chris Soltow, Thousand Oaks