In a disappointing decision that undermines families’ fundamental rights, a divided federal appeals court has rejected a group of Maryland parents’ plea to allow them to opt their elementary school children out of being exposed to books promoting transgender and homosexual themes.

The 2-1 ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the parents’ request for a preliminary injunction against the Montgomery County school district’s policy mandating that all students, including young children, must be subjected to classroom materials depicting same-sex relationships and gender nonconformity.

Despite the objections of Muslim, Christian and Jewish parents working alongside the parental rights group Kids First, the liberal-leaning Richmond-based court ruled that the school board policy does not infringe on the parents’ First Amendment rights to control their children’s religious upbringing.

In a baffling opinion, Judge G. Steven Agee, a Bush nominee, incredibly claimed there was insufficient evidence that the LGBTQ storybooks like “Pride Puppy!” and “Born Ready” would actually burden the families’ sincere religious beliefs about marriage and gender. He punted on protecting children, saying more proof was needed about how the books are used in classrooms.

This willful blindness ignores the obvious fact that exposing young kids to classroom indoctrination celebrating homosexuality and transgenderism as normal violates the core religious convictions of millions of Christian, Jewish and Muslim families.

Dissenting judge Marvin Quattlebaum rightly argued the ruling “told thousands of Maryland parents they have no say in what their children are taught in public schools” regarding contentious moral values.

Eric Baxter, the parents’ lawyer, has vowed to appeal this misguided denial of basic parental choice to a higher court. No family should be forced to have their children’s religious beliefs undermined by public schools pushing the radical LGBTQ agenda on impressionable young minds.