Image CreditBreccan F. Thies / The Federalist
The same Maryland school district the Supreme Court rebuked for exposing children to sexually explicit material is still forcing children as young as 12 to decipher numerous gender ideology terms in a vocabulary lesson, without parental knowledge, permission, or the ability to opt out.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is a far-left school district on the periphery of Washington, D.C., perhaps most (in)famous for blocking parents from opting their children out of highly sexual material, including advocacy for homosexuality and transgenderism.
However, even after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling stating the district had to allow parents to opt their children out of the coursework, the county is still trying to force-feed young teenagers and preteens “transgender” propaganda, according to a document obtained by Defending Education from a parent.
“This vocabulary lesson requires that students buy into an ideology that many reject,” DE Senior Director of Communications Erika Sanzi told The Federalist. “Does MCPS require that students subscribe to gender ideology in order to fulfill the district’s family life requirements for middle schoolers? Because if so, that seems like viewpoint discrimination in a public school.”
The seventh grade vocabulary assignment, given the week of Oct. 13, 2025, was part of a “Family Life” (a.k.a. sexual education) lesson in which students were told to define “Sex Assigned at Birth,” “Gender Identity,” “Transgender,” “Gender Expression,” and “Cisgender.”
The worksheet appears to be a district-wide lesson, as a stamp at the bottom states “Middle School Health Education-MCPS 2023.”
The parent said there was no opportunity to opt the child out of the lesson, as the parent believes the child was not supposed to bring the worksheet home in the first place, ostensibly so that parents did not find out about the content.
“Gender identity,” according to the definitions provided, “refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, or transgender” and “How you feel. Girl, boy, both or neither.”
It also maintains that sex is “assigned at birth” instead of being immutable, and goes on to say that it can be changed because “transgender” is “when your gender identity (how you feel) is different than what doctors/midwives assigned to you when you were born (girl/boy or sex assigned at birth).”
The definitions used came either from the American Psychological Association (APA) or a program called “Welcoming Schools,” which is run by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, which is an arm of the country’s biggest gay and transgender lobby.
As The Federalist has reported, HRC is a gender extremism group hellbent on making sure as many children are chemically castrated or have their genitals mutilated as possible, in the name of gender ideology.
Through its institutional power, the APA has also tried to embed transgender ideology into the practice of psychology.
The school district did not respond to a request for comment from The Federalist.
Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.
