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The Supreme Court handed a victory<\/a> to religious parents on Friday that allows them to opt their kids out<\/a> from reading or learning from books about LGBTQ stories in public schools, including one where a little girl prefers a superhero cape to a skirt and another where a beloved uncle gets married to a man.<\/p>\n Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito<\/strong> held that the Maryland public school district board at the center of the case, Mahmoud v. Taylor<\/em>, had \u201csubstantially\u201d interfered with \u201cthe religious development\u201d of the students and imposed an undue burden on parents\u2019 religious exercise by introducing books with LGBTQ themes. Alito further argues that these books do not merely provide exposure of expansive identity and sexuality, but instead present things like gay marriage as a \u201cmoral\u201d thing and a \u201ccause for celebration.\u201d The majority found that this representation interferes with parental rights.<\/p>\n In a scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor<\/strong> decried the majority opinion, writing that \u201cExposing students to the \u2018message\u2019 that LGBTQ people exist, and that their loved ones may celebrate their marriages and life events, the majority says, is enough to trigger the most demanding form of judicial scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n Public schools, Sotomayor wrote, \u201coffer to children of all faiths and backgrounds an education and an opportunity to practice living in our multicultural society.\u201d That experience, she said, is \u201ccritical\u201d to the nation\u2019s civic vitality.<\/p>\n \u201cYet,\u201d Sotomayor warned, \u201cit will become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents\u2019 religious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n