Maryland Moves Gender Identity Lessons From Kindergarten to Fifth Grade

November 12, 2025

Maryland school officials have approved a proposal to remove gender identity lessons from the kindergarten health curriculum and to delay the topic until fifth grade.

Christianity Daily reports that the revised Maryland Comprehensive Health Education Framework action comes after concerned parents from across the state raised worries about the early elementary lessons on gender.

According to Spotlight on Maryland, certain lessons on “gender identity and expression” will be removed, including those that asked kindergartners to “recognize a range of ways people identify and express their gender.”

Under the new standard, the topic will be introduced in the fifth grade, where students will be asked to “demonstrate ways to treat people of all gender identities and expressions with dignity and respect.”

Raven Hill, spokeswoman for the Maryland State Department of Education, said the decision to remove the lessons came after consultation with health education experts who said fifth grade was a more developmentally appropriate age to introduce lessons on gender identity.

Tensions have been building in Maryland since 2022 over school curriculum, after the Montgomery County Board of Education approved LGBT-themed books for language arts classes, starting in kindergarten.

That triggered a lawsuit from parents who wished to opt their children out of such classes.

The lawsuit was rejected by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in 2023 and her ruling was upheld by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it in June of 2025.

Photo: top, Credit: Unsplash/Gabe Pierce