Montgomery Blindsided Over Sex-Ed

U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr., made clear in his opinion, however, that learning about sex would not encourage students to engage in sex.

"It would require more than a few logical leaps for this Court to find that MCPS students presented with the Revised Curriculum would suddenly choose to engage in promiscuous, unprotected, homosexual sex," he said.

At the same time, the judge said he was disturbed by references to specific religious denominations in the teachers' guide and what he characterized as a one-sided portrayal of homosexuality.

Montgomery school officials said that they have only begun to reexamine the revised curriculum and that it is too early to say what elements will be included in revisions.

Irvine said conservatives have become emboldened by today's political climate, including the current debate over evolution and creationism in Kansas.

"We have a lot of different things happening at this moment,'' she said. "We've had a growing political Christian right movement that since the 1960s has used sex-ed as an important battleground, and that movement has only gotten stronger and stronger with [President] Bush's reelection."

Opponents of the program said they don't want to be characterized as a religious fringe.

"We really feel we represent the mainstream,'' said John Garza, the group's attorney and vice president.

The group has received help from Erik Stanley, chief counsel for Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based nonprofit organization known for his involvement in the Terri Schiavo case, and for litigating same-sex marriage and Ten Commandments cases across the nation. Stanley argued on behalf of the two groups in federal court last week.

The group that battled the Montgomery school board evolved over several months, from an effort to recall board members into a more consciously moderate organization intent on alerting parents to portions of the new curriculum it deemed objectionable. Given Montgomery's political reputation, few expected the groups to prevail.

"All we hear is how liberal Montgomery County is. There's actually quite a few conservatives in the county," said Laura Quigley, who has children at middle and high schools in Gaithersburg. "And all along, we've thought this was more than a liberal-conservative issue. It's a parent issue."