A4TE Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Inclusive Curriculum on Behalf of LGBTQ+ Muslims

[Washington, D.C.] - Advocates for Trans Equality Education Fund (A4TE) filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of eight organizations including Queer Crescent, Al-Wāsi’ Collective, Atlanta Unity Mosque, Queer Muslims of Boston (QMOB), and other groups with LGBTQI+ Muslims among their members in support of Montgomery County Public Schools’ decision to include LGBTQI+-inclusive storybooks in elementary language arts classes. 
 
“In a country where Muslims and LGBTQI+ students alike are being targeted simply for being who they are, it is more important than ever that our taxpayer-funded public schools are learning environments that are safe and respectful of all students no matter who they are or what they believe,” said Gabriel Arkles, Advocates for Trans Equality Co-Interim Legal Director. “Contact with different people and ideas in our public schools is protected by the U.S. Constitution. And trans, queer, and allied Muslims and other members of religious minorities, like the groups we represented here, too often get left out of conversations about religious liberty." 
 
“Our community is vast and includes so many ways of living, relating, and worshiping within its traditions,” said Darien Alexander Williams, Organizer with Queer Muslims of Boston (QMOB), a grassroots organization of LGBTQIA+ Muslims in the Boston Area. “QMOB affirms this in our work, especially alongside peer Muslim organizations that build spaces that hold this complexity rather than shut it out,.”  

This brief emphasizes that Muslim beliefs about gender and sexuality are not monolithic. Many Muslims understand their faith as inclusive of LGBTQI+ people and view human diversity as a divine sign, celebrated in the Qur’an. Islamic history, too, includes rich and complex understandings of gender and sexuality. The groups affirm that LGBTQI+ Muslims are a vital part of their communities and deserve to see themselves reflected in public life – including school curriculum. 
 
"Requiring this opt-out would endanger LGBTQI+ and Muslim students by reinforcing stigma, undermining pluralism, and setting a dangerous precedent that could fragment public education and erode civil rights protections,” said Shenaaz Janmohamed, Executive Director of Queer Crescent. "Being Muslim is not one experience, one language, one race, or one way of practicing.” 
 
“The Constitution prevents public schools from suppressing knowledge for the sake of adults’ religious beliefs, as this is not their intended function,” said Kelly Parry-Johnson, Advocates for Trans Equality Senior Staff Attorney. “We are asking the Court to uphold the Fourth Circuit’s decision by declining to require religiously motivated opt-outs from the use of LGBTQI+ - inclusive curriculum.” 
 
A4TE’s brief urges the Court to uphold the Fourth Circuit's ruling, which found that the school district’s policy does not violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by declining to provide notice and opt-outs from inclusive educational materials. The brief highlights the importance of protecting inclusive education as essential to fostering empathy, mutual respect, and knowledge– values shared in many religious traditions, including Islam. 

Gabriel Arkles, Kelly Perry-Johnson, Anya Marino of A4TE represent the amici, who include Atlanta Unity Mosque, Al-Wāsi’ Collective, Desi Rainbow Parents & Allies, Hidaya LGBTQ US, Tarab NYC, Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity MASGD, Queer Crescent, and Queer Muslims of Boston. Jack Einstein, Maddie Schwartz, and Shawn Avidan also assisted on the brief. The case is Mahmoud v Taylor. 


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