Wall Street Journal spotlights California parents’ challenge to mandatory school gender lessons
Caroline MolloyThe Wall Street Journal’s editorial page on July 19 drew national attention to a California couple’s lawsuit alleging their public school district refused to provide notice or an opt-out from lessons on sexuality and “gender identity” that conflict with their Christian beliefs.
In an editorial titled “A New Lawsuit on School Gender Lessons,” the Journal presented Taylor v. Sunnyvale School District as a test of whether school systems may sidestep the Supreme Court’s landmark 2025 religious-liberty ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
Justin and Rose Taylor filed the lawsuit June 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The couple, who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have a son entering third grade and a daughter entering first grade at Cumberland Elementary School.
The Taylors believe God created human beings male and female, that biological sex is a God-given part of a person’s identity, and that parents have a religious obligation to oversee their children’s moral formation.
According to the lawsuit and the Taylors’ attorneys at Becket, the parents asked the district in September 2025 to notify them before lessons involving same-sex relationships, “gender identity,” or similar subjects and to excuse their children from those lessons.
The request did not ask the district to remove the materials or prevent other children from receiving the instruction.
District allegedly reversed course on accommodation
Sunnyvale initially appeared willing to accommodate the family, the plaintiffs argued in the June suit. The district had provided the Taylors with a form that identified religious or moral conflicts as possible grounds for opting out of instructional materials. Cumberland Elementary also reportedly told school librarians not to check out LGBT-related materials to the children.
But, according to the suit, the district “abruptly” reversed course.
In a letter quoted in the lawsuit, school officials said Sunnyvale was “not granting opt-outs from LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum or storybooks that are part of our adopted educational program.”
The letter maintained that Mahmoud “does not override California’s statutory requirements governing instructional content” and described the Supreme Court dispute as a case arising in “another state.”
Michael O’Brien, Becket counsel and the Taylors’ lead attorney, criticized the letter’s claim in a June 23 press release published when the lawsuit was first announced.
“The Constitution doesn’t come with a California carveout,” O’Brien said, accusing Sunnyvale of attempting “to sidestep Mahmoud and override the Taylors’ clearly protected parental rights.”
