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`No. 23-1890
`════════════════════════════════════════
`UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
`FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
`──────────────────────────────
`TAMER MAHMOUD, ET AL.,
`PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS,
`V.
`MONIFA B. MCKNIGHT, IN HER OFFICIAL
`CAPACITY AS SUPERINTENDENT OF THE MONTGOMERY
`COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, ET AL.,
`DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.
`──────────────────────────────
`On Appeal from the United States District Court
`for the District of Maryland
`
`Case No. 8:23-CV-01380-DLB
`════════════════════════════════════════
`
`BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE
`ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY CENTER
`SUPPORTING PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS’ MOTION
`FOR INJUNCTION PENDING APPEAL
`
`════════════════════════════════════════
`
`ERIC N. KNIFFIN
`
`MARY RICE HASSON
`ETHICS & PUBLIC POLICY CENTER
`
`1730 M Street, N.W.
`
` Suite 910
`
`Washington, DC 20036
`
`(202) 682-1200
`
`ekniffin@eppc.org
`
`
`
`Counsel for Amicus Curiae
`
`September 6, 2023
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`No. 23-1890
`════════════════════════════════════════
`UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
`FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
`──────────────────────────────
`TAMER MAHMOUD, ET AL.,
`PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS,
`V.
`MONIFA B. MCKNIGHT, IN HER OFFICIAL
`CAPACITY AS SUPERINTENDENT OF THE MONTGOMERY
`COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, ET AL.,
`DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.
`──────────────────────────────
`On Appeal from the United States District Court
`for the District of Maryland
`
`Case No. 8:23-CV-01380-DLB
`════════════════════════════════════════
`
`BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE
`ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY CENTER
`SUPPORTING PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS’ MOTION
`FOR INJUNCTION PENDING APPEAL
`
`════════════════════════════════════════
`
`ERIC N. KNIFFIN
`
`MARY RICE HASSON
`ETHICS & PUBLIC POLICY CENTER
`
`1730 M Street, N.W.
`
` Suite 910
`
`Washington, DC 20036
`
`(202) 682-1200
`
`ekniffin@eppc.org
`
`
`
`Counsel for Amicus Curiae
`
`September 6, 2023
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
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`CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
`Amicus Curiae the Ethics and Public Policy Center is a non-profit
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`501(c)(3) organization and has no corporate parent and is not owned in
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`whole or in part by any publicly held corporation.
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`TABLE OF CONTENTS
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`Page
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`CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT ............................................ i
`TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ..................................................................... iii
`STATEMENT OF INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE............................. 1
`INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ........................... 3
`ARGUMENT ............................................................................................. 4
`I. The Board’s curriculum does more than “encourage respect”
`for others: it teaches radical claims as true and good. .................. 4
`II. The challenged curriculum aligns with “gender ideology.” ........... 6
`
`III. Gender ideology is radically at odds with Christian
`
`teaching on the human person. .................................................... 10
`CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 15
`CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE ........................................................ 17
`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE ................................................................. 18
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`ii
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`TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
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`Cases
`Mahmoud v. McKnight, No. 23-CV-1380-DLB,
`2023 WL 5487218 (D. Md. Aug. 24, 2023) ........................... 5, 11, 12, 13
`Treatises
`Andrew T. Walker, GOD AND THE TRANSGENDER DEBATE (Good Book
`2017) ....................................................................................................... 2
`Carl R. Trueman, STRANGE NEW WORLD: HOW THINKERS AND
`ACTIVISTS REDEFINED IDENTITY AND SPARKED THE SEXUAL
`REVOLUTION (Crossway 2022) ............................................................... 2
`Jarislav Pelikan, THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION, VOL. 1: THE
`EMERGENCE OF THE CATHOLIC TRADITION (100-600) (Chicago Press
`1975) ..................................................................................................... 14
`Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, COMPENDIUM OF THE SOCIAL
`DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH (Burns & Oates 2006) ............................... 15
`Ryan T. Anderson, WHEN HARRY BECAME SALLY (Encounter Books
`2018) ....................................................................................................... 2
`Simone de Beauvoir, THE SECOND SEX (Constance Border and
`Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, trans., Vintage 2011). ............................. 8
`Terry Goldie, THE MAN WHO INVENTED GENDER: ENGAGING THE
`IDEAS OF JOHN MONEY (UBC Press 2014). ............................................. 8
`
`
`Other Authorities
`Courtney Mares, Pope Francis: Gender ideology is ‘one of the most
`dangerous ideological colonizations’ today, Catholic News
`Agency, March 11, 2023 ....................................................................... 16
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`iii
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`David Crawford and Michael Hanby, The Abolition of Man and
`Woman, WSJ, June 24, 2020 ............................................................... 12
`EPPC, Amicus Briefs: “Gender Transition” Interventions,
`https://eppc.org/amicus-briefs/#16-%E2%80%9Cgender-
`transition%E2%80%9D-interventions-. ................................................ 3
`EPPC, Person & Identity Project, Catholic Teaching, Church
`Documents, and Diocesan Policies,
`https://personandidentity.com/resources/church-documents/ ............ 18
`G.K. Marinov, In Humans, Sex Is Binary and Immutable, 33
`ACADEMIC QUESTIONS 279 (2020) .......................................................... 9
`Gender Spectrum, Principles of Gender-Inclusive Puberty and
`Health Education (2019) ...................................................................... 10
`Genesis 5:2 ............................................................................................... 15
`John B. Buescher, Gnosticism vs. The Incarnation: The Ancient
`Battle Renewed, Cath. World Report, June 8, 2015 ............................ 14
`Junno Arocho Esteves, World in ‘profound anthropological crisis,’
`pope says, Catholic News Service, May 19, 2022 ................................ 16
`Mary Rice Hasson, Erasing Females in Language and Law, 11 J. OF
`CHRISTIAN LEGAL THOUGHT 44 (Oct. 2011) .......................................... 12
`Pope Francis, “Laudato Si” (Holy See, May 24, 2015) ........................... 17
`Pope Francis: ‘I prayed for peace in Fatima without publicity,’
`Vatican News, Aug. 2023 ..................................................................... 17
`Rachel Giese and Chris Wodskou, The Story of John Money:
`Controversial Sexologist Grappled with the Concept of Gender,
`CBC NEWS, July 5, 2015 ........................................................................ 9
`Rachel Morrison, Gender Identity Policy Under the Biden
`Administration, 23 FED. SOC. REV. 85 (2022) ........................................ 2
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`Russell Moore, Just How Secular Should America Be?, N.Y. TIMES,
`June 18, 2020 ....................................................................................... 13
`The Trans Language Primer,
`https://web.archive.org/web/20210304155343/https://www.transla
`nguageprimer.org/primer/#sex ............................................................ 10
`Theresa Farnan, Our world has lost the Catholic understanding of
`human anthropology, Our Sunday Visitor, June 2, 2023 ..................... 2
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`STATEMENT OF INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE1
`The Ethics and Public Policy Center (“EPPC”) is a nonprofit research
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`institution dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to
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`critical issues of public policy, law, culture, and politics. EPPC has a
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`strong interest in promoting the Judeo-Christian vision of the human
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`person, protecting religious liberty, and responding to the challenges of
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`gender ideology.
`
`Gender ideology has permeated culture with stunning speed,
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`influencing medicine, business, media, entertainment, government, and
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`education. Because gender ideology is sowing confusion and undermining
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`personal well-being, its rise has created an urgent need for clarity,
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`education, and compassionate guidance.
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`To meet this need, EPPC launched the Person & Identity Project, led
`
`by Director Mary Rice Hasson, which “assists the Catholic Church in
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`promoting the Catholic vision of the human person and responding to the
`
`
`1 All parties received timely notice to the filing of this brief. Plaintiffs-
`Appellants have given their consent; Defendants-Appellees have
`refused their consent. No party’s counsel authored any part of this brief
`and no person other than amicus made a monetary contribution to fund
`its preparation or submission.
`
`1
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`challenges of gender ideology.”2 Many other EPPC Fellows have also
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`written on gender ideology, including President Ryan Anderson.3
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`This brief was written by Mary Hasson, JD, the Kate O’Beirne Senior
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`Fellow at EPPC and the Director of EPPC’s Person and Identity Project,
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`and Eric Kniffin, JD, a Fellow with EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`2 EPPC, Person & Identity Project, https://personandidentity.com/.
`3 Relevant publications from EPPC Fellows include:
`• Ryan T. Anderson, WHEN HARRY BECAME SALLY (Encounter Books
`2018);
`• Andrew T. Walker, GOD AND THE TRANSGENDER DEBATE (Good
`Book 2017);
`• Carl R. Trueman, STRANGE NEW WORLD: HOW THINKERS AND
`ACTIVISTS REDEFINED IDENTITY AND SPARKED THE SEXUAL
`REVOLUTION (Crossway 2022);
`• Theresa Farnan, Our world has lost the Catholic understanding of
`human anthropology, Our Sunday Visitor, June 2, 2023,
`https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/our-world-has-lost-the-catholic-
`understanding-of-human-anthropology.
`• Rachel N. Morrison, Gender Identity Policy Under the Biden
`Administration, 23 FED. SOC. REV. 85 (2022), available at SSRN:
`https://ssrn.com/abstract=4104566.
`• Amicus briefs on gender identity authored by EPPC fellows are
`available at EPPC, Amicus Briefs: “Gender Transition”
`Interventions, https://eppc.org/amicus-briefs/#16-
`%E2%80%9Cgender-transition%E2%80%9D-interventions-.
`
`2
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`INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
`Central to the decision below is the district court’s inference that the
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`Plaintiffs-Appellants (“Parents”) are overstating the case. The court’s
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`opinion understates the messages Defendants-Appellees’ (“School Board”
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`or “Board”) curriculum teaches as moral and true, and thus
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`underestimates how the Board’s refusal to permit an opt-out interferes
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`with Parents’ religious exercise and constitutional rights.
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`Though Amicus is confident that the Board’s actions substantially
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`burden each of the Parents’ constitutional rights, this brief draws on its
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`Person & Identity Project and focuses on the conflict between the Board’s
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`curriculum and Catholic teaching.
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`Part I shows that the Board’s curriculum does more than just “focus
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`on tolerance, empathy, and respect for different views.” Part II
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`demonstrates that the Board’s curriculum fits squarely within “gender
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`ideology,” a radical worldview that has moved from the academy to the
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`broader culture. Part III shows that gender ideology is fundamentally
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`incompatible with Christian anthropology and Catholic teaching.
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`3
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`ARGUMENT
`I. The Board’s curriculum does more than “encourage respect”
`for others: it teaches radical claims as true and good.
`A common theme in the district court’s opinion below is that the School
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`Board’s sexuality and gender curriculum really isn’t all that bad. As the
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`court sees it, the Board is merely “striv[ing] to ‘provide a culturally
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`responsive … curriculum that promotes equity, respect, and civility” and
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`prepare[] students to “[c]onfront and eliminate stereotypes related to
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`individuals’ actual or perceived characteristics,’ including gender
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`identity and sexual orientation.’” Mahmoud v. McKnight, No. 23-CV-
`
`1380-DLB, 2023 WL 5487218, at *1 (D. Md. Aug. 24, 2023) (quoting ECF
`
`43 ¶6). Its curriculum merely “creates and normalizes a fully inclusive
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`environment for all students,” helping them “empathize, connect, and
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`collaborate with diverse peers and encourag[ing] respect for all.” Id.
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`(quoting ECF 43 ¶22). When summarizing “How Teachers Will Use the
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`Storybooks,” the court says, “Generally, the [Board’s] suggested
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`responses [to student questions] focus on tolerance, empathy, and respect
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`for different views.” Id. at 7.
`
`But the storybooks themselves, the Board’s instructions to teachers,
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`and the Board’s comments tell a different story.
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`4
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`My Rainbow4 tells the story of Trinity, an elementary school-aged
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`autistic boy who identifies as a transgender girl. The book states that
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`“Trinity’s gender was part of what made her a masterpiece, just like her
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`autism and her Black skin.” The family affirms Trinity’s transgender
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`identity by using female pronouns, letting Trinity wear dresses, and
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`making Trinity a rainbow-colored wig.
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`Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope5 is about a five-
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`year-old girl who declares, “inside I’m a boy.” Penelope is angry “[b]ecause
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`everybody thinks I’m a girl.” Penelope asks her mom, “Help me be a boy.”
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`Penelope’s mom responds, “We will make a plan to tell everyone we love
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`what we know…. You are a boy.”
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`Penelope’s “Big Brother” objects to Mom’s announcement: “This
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`doesn’t make sense. You can’t become a boy. You have to be born one.”
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`But Mom corrects Big Brother: “Not everything needs to make sense. This
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`is about love.”
`
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`4 Book reproduced at ECF 1-8, available at
`https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20230524194648/2023-05-24-
`1-08-Cmplt-Ex-G.pdf.
`5 Book reproduced at ECF 1-11, available at
`https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20230524194640/2023-05-24-
`1-10-Cmplt-Ex-I.pdf.
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`5
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`The Board’s “Sample Student Call-Ins” document prescribes how
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`teachers should respond to a student, like Penelope’s “Big Brother,” who
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`says, “You can’t become a boy. You have to be born one.” Teachers should
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`say this is a “hurtful” observation that “shouldn’t” be made in class.6 “Our
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`bodies do not decide our gender.”7 “We cannot know someone’s gender by
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`looking at them.”8
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`Teaching that a biological male can “be” a female and that subjective
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`beliefs or wishes should take precedence over biological reality is not
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`merely advancing “diversity” and “inclusion”; it is teaching that “gender
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`ideology” is true and that refusing to acquiesce is hurtful and wrong.
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`II. The challenged curriculum aligns with “gender ideology.”
`The Board’s curriculum reflects “gender ideology,” a set of radical
`
`ideas about sexuality, gender, and the human person. Gender ideology
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`teaches that a person’s identity is self-determined based on feelings or
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`self-perception, regardless of the person’s sex (male or female).
`
`
`6 Montgomery Cty. School Bd., Sample Student Call-Ins at 2, ECF 55-3,
`available at
`https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20230817172657/2023-08-16-
`55-3-Ex.-3.pdf.
`7 Id. at 3.
`8 Id.
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`6
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`Gender ideology developed over the latter half of the twentieth
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`century. In 1949, French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir
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`wrote, “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman,” foreshadowing
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`second-wave feminism and the coming gender revolution.9 Psychologist
`
`John Money, who worked with transsexuals in the 1950s and 60s, was
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`the first to use “gender” to denote behavioral (as opposed to biological)
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`differences between males and females.10 Money “believed that if you
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`were a biological male and believed yourself to be a female that it was an
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`idée fixe—it was so important to you as a person that it could not be
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`contradicted.”11
`
`The Board’s curriculum reflects gender ideology’s advance from
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`academic literature to school classrooms.12 The Board’s “LGBTQ+
`
`
`9 Simone de Beauvoir, THE SECOND SEX 283 (Constance Border and
`Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, trans., Vintage 2011).
`10 Terry Goldie, THE MAN WHO INVENTED GENDER: ENGAGING THE IDEAS
`OF JOHN MONEY (UBC Press 2014).
`11 Rachel Giese and Chris Wodskou, The Story of John Money:
`Controversial Sexologist Grappled with the Concept of Gender, CBC
`NEWS, July 5, 2015, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/the-story-of-john-
`money-controversial-sexologist-grappled-with-the-concept-of-gender-
`1.3137670.
`12 G.K. Marinov, In Humans, Sex Is Binary and Immutable, 33
`ACADEMIC QUESTIONS 279 (2020), https://www.nas.org/academic-
`questions/33/2/in-humans-sex-is-binary-and-immutable.
`
`7
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`Information” webpage13 links to a “Gender Inclusive Schools Toolkit”
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`produced by Gender Spectrum, an organization that promotes “gender-
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`inclusive puberty education.” Gender Spectrum teaches sex ed not by
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`telling kids about males and females but by referring to “bodies with a
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`penis and testicles or bodies with a vulva and ovaries.”14
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`No longer content with merely persuading others, some gender
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`ideologues now claim that the biologically-based definition of sex is not
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`only incorrect but oppressive. The online “Trans Language Primer”
`
`defines “sex” as:
`
`A binary system (wo/man) set by the medical establishment
`to reinforce white supremacy and gender oppression, usually
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`based on genitals and sometimes chromosomes.15
`
`The Board matches the radical “Trans Language Primer” step-for-step:
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`its “Sample Student Call-Ins” states that students “shouldn’t” be
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`“hurtful” by saying that sex is biologically determined;16 one Board
`
`
`13 Montgomery County Public School, LGBTQ+ Information (For
`Students and Staff), https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/LGBTQ/.
`14 Gender Spectrum, Principles of Gender-Inclusive Puberty and Health
`Education 12 (2019), available at https://bit.ly/45NP9i2.
`15 The Trans Language Primer,
`https://web.archive.org/web/20210304155343/https://www.translanguag
`eprimer.org/primer/#sex.
`16 Supra at 7 n.6.
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`8
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`Member likened the Parents to “white supremacists” and “xenophobes.”
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`Mahmoud, 2023 WL 5487218 at *12.
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`Gender ideology is a radical construct with profound implications for
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`society and religious liberty, as David Crawford and Michael Hanby,
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`professors at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage
`
`& Family at the Catholic University of America, have noted:
`
`The unstated premise [of gender ideology] is that the
`relationship between our embodiment as male and female and
`our personal subjectivity (as expressed in “identity”) is
`essentially arbitrary…. These assumptions further imply that
`… to be a woman is a mental state, that we really are
`Cartesian “ghosts in the machine.”…
`These are metaphysical judgments … highly questionable
`philosophical propositions with [profound] implications for
`society [because] [i]t is impossible to redefine human nature
`for only one person. When a fourth-grade girl is required to
`affirm in thought, word and deed that a boy in her class is now
`a girl, this does not simply affirm the classmate’s right to self-
`expression. It calls into question the meaning of “boy” and
`“girl” as such…. If each of us is defined by a “gender identity”
`only arbitrarily related to our male and female bodies … then
`there is no longer any such thing as man or woman….
`What we are dealing with is nothing less than a war on reality
`itself…. There is no totalitarianism so total as that which
`claims authority over the meaning of nature.17
`
`
`17 David Crawford and Michael Hanby, The Abolition of Man and
`Woman, WSJ, June 24, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-
`abolition-of-man-and-woman-11593017500.
`
`9
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`In sum, gender ideology “has become a government-promoted
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`anthropology, an alternative belief system that proposes its own (false)
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`‘truth’ about the human person.”18
`
`III. Gender ideology is radically at odds with Christian teaching
`on the human person.
`On five separate occasions, the district court credits the Board’s claim
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`that its curriculum “make[s] sure every student sees themselves [sic] in
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`the curriculum.”19 Yet the Board’s curriculum excludes and maligns the
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`Parents and their students, who believe what their religious traditions
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`teaches about the nature of the human person. According to the Board,
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`allowing an opt-out “is just telling that kid, ‘here’s another reason to hate
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`another person.’” Mahmoud, 2023 WL 5487218 at *10. Parents with
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`religious objections to gender ideology deserve to be treated like “white
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`supremacists” and “xenophobes.” Id. at *12.
`
`Through these shocking comments, the Board tacitly concedes that—
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`at least on this point—it and the Parents see eye-to-eye: its curriculum is
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`fundamentally incompatible with their religious convictions about
`
`
`18 Mary Rice Hasson, Erasing Females in Language and Law, 11 J. OF
`CHRISTIAN LEGAL THOUGHT 44, 46 (Oct. 2011), available at
`https://eppc.org/publication/erasing-females-in-language-and-law/.
`19 Mahmoud at *9; see also id. at *10 (twice) and *11 (twice).
`
`10
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`
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`human nature and human flourishing. As one Christian leader
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`explained:
`
`[O]ne need not agree with Christians or Muslims or Orthodox
`Jews or others on marriage and sexuality to see that such
`views are not incidental to their belief systems. They did not
`emerge out of a political debate, and they won’t be undone by
`political power…. One cannot simply uproot them and expect
`these people to adjust their consciences to fit the new cultural
`expectation.20
`The remainder of this section, however, will draw upon the EPPC’s
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`Person & Identity Project to explain in detail why the Board’s refusal to
`
`allow Catholic Parents to opt-out substantially burdens their religious
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`exercise and parental rights.
`
`Affirming the importance and goodness of the human body has always
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`been central to the Christian faith. In the second century A.D., bishops
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`condemned “Gnosticism,” a philosophy that taught people to seek
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`happiness and salvation through transcending their material bodies.21 In
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`response, the early Christian Church affirmed that Jesus Christ was both
`
`
`20 Russell Moore, Just How Secular Should America Be?, N.Y. TIMES,
`June 18, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/opinion/supreme-
`court-religious-freedom.html.
`21 See Jarislav Pelikan, THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION, VOL. 1: THE
`EMERGENCE OF THE CATHOLIC TRADITION (100-600) 81-97 (Chicago Press
`1975).
`
`11
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`truly God and truly man, and that implicit in the Incarnation is the good
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`news that our bodies are good and an essential part of what it means to
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`be a human person.22
`
`This teaching on the dignity of the human person remains
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`foundational to Christian anthropology.23 Christianity embraces each
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`person’s sexual identity, male or female, as a gift from God: “Male and
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`female he created them.”24 “Equal in dignity” but complementary,
`
`Christianity teaches that man and woman exist in a “reciprocal
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`relationship,” a gift to one another, “entrusted [with] not only the work
`
`of procreation and family life, but the creation of history itself.”25
`
`Throughout its history, the Catholic Church has refined its doctrine to
`
`address the challenges that each age brings. Today, the Church sees the
`
`world “is undergoing a profound anthropological crisis, a crisis of
`
`
`22 See John B. Buescher, Gnosticism vs. The Incarnation: The Ancient
`Battle Renewed, Cath. World Report, June 8, 2015,
`https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2015/06/08/gnosticism-vs-the-
`incarnation-the-ancient-battle-renewed/.
`23 See Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, COMPENDIUM OF THE
`SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH ¶ 144 (Burns & Oates 2006)
`(“Compendium”).
`24 Genesis 5:2.
`25 Compendium ¶¶ 146, 147.
`
`12
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`USCA4 Appeal: 23-1890 Doc: 31-1 Filed: 09/06/2023 Pg: 19 of 24
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`
`
`meaning.”26 As such, Pope Francis, the United States Catholic
`
`Conference of Bishops (USCCB), and dozens of American bishops have
`
`expounded on the Christian view of the human person and why it is
`
`incompatible with gender ideology—the belief system endorsed and
`
`promoted by the Board.
`
`Pope Francis calls gender ideology “one of the most dangerous
`
`ideological colonizations” today.27 He sees this “anthropology of gender”
`
`as “extremely dangerous because it eliminates differences, and that
`
`erases humanity, the richness of humanity, both personal, cultural, and
`
`social.”28 Attempts to erase biological differences are part of “a Gnostic
`
`heresy.”29 Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si compares gender
`
`
`26 Junno Arocho Esteves, World in ‘profound anthropological crisis,’
`pope says, Catholic News Service, May 19, 2022,
`https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2022/05/world-in-profound-anthropological-
`crisis-pope-says.
`27 Courtney Mares, Pope Francis: Gender ideology is ‘one of the most
`dangerous ideological colonizations’ today, Catholic News Agency,
`March 11, 2023,
`https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253845/pope-francis-gender-
`ideology-is-one-of-the-most-dangerous-ideological-colonizations-today.
`28 Id.
`29 Pope Francis: ‘I prayed for peace in Fatima without publicity,’ Vatican
`News, Aug. 2023, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-
`08/pope-francis-portugal-wyd-inflight-press-conference.html.
`
`13
`
`
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`USCA4 Appeal: 23-1890 Doc: 31-1 Filed: 09/06/2023 Pg: 20 of 24
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`
`
`ideology with human failures to respect the environment, the natural
`
`order.30
`
`The USCCB has likewise warned Christians that gender ideology
`
`conflicts with God’s design for creation. In 2017, the USCCB led an
`
`interreligious coalition that published “Created Male and Female: An
`
`Open Letter from Religious Leaders.”31 In 2019, the USCCB released a
`
`collection of “Select Teaching Resources” from popes and other
`
`authorities to help educators and pastors deal with gender ideology.32
`
`Finally, in March 2023, the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine published
`
`a document “On the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the
`
`Human Body,” which addresses so-called
`
`“gender affirmation”
`
`surgeries.33
`
`
`30 Pope Francis, “Laudato Si” ¶155 (Holy See, May 24, 2015),
`https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa
`-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.
`31 Created Male and Female: An Open Letter from Religious Leaders,
`Dec. 15, 2017, https://www.usccb.org/topics/promotion-defense-
`marriage/created-male-and-female.
`32 USCCB, “Gender theory”/“Gender ideology” – Select Teaching
`Resources, https://www.usccb.org/resources/Gender-Ideology-Select-
`Teaching-Resources_0.pdf
`33 USCCB, Committee on Doctrine, Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits
`to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body, March 20, 2023,
`https://www.usccb.org/resources/Doctrinal%20Note%202023-03-20.pdf. ,
`
`14
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`
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`USCA4 Appeal: 23-1890 Doc: 31-1 Filed: 09/06/2023 Pg: 21 of 24
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`
`
`Individual Catholic Bishops have developed their own pastoral
`
`documents and policies related to gender ideology. The Person & Identity
`
`Project’s website hosts statements from at least 26 U.S. dioceses
`
`alongside related statements from the Vatican, the USCCB, and bishops
`
`around the world.34
`
`These materials show that the gender ideology advanced by the School
`
`Board is radically at odds with Christian anthropology. That is why the
`
`Board’s refusal to let Parents opt out substantially burdens their
`
`religious exercise and constitutional rights.
`
`CONCLUSION
`The Court should enter an injunction pending an appeal.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Respectfully submitted,
`
`s/ Eric N. Kniffin
`ERIC N. KNIFFIN
`ETHICS & PUBLIC POLICY CENTER
`1730 M Street, N.W.
` Suite 910
`Washington, DC 20036
`(202) 682-1200
`ekniffin@eppc.org
`
`Counsel for Amicus Curiae
`
`
`34 EPPC, Person & Identity Project, Catholic Teaching, Church
`Documents, and Diocesan Policies,
`https://personandidentity.com/resources/church-documents/.
`
`15
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`USCA4 Appeal: 23-1890 Doc: 31-1 Filed: 09/06/2023 Pg: 22 of 24
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`
`
`
`
`SEPTEMBER 6, 2023
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`
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`16
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`USCA4 Appeal: 23-1890 Doc: 31-1 Filed: 09/06/2023 Pg: 23 of 24
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`
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`CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE
`This brief complies with the typeface requirements of Fed. R. App. P.
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`32(a)(5) and the type-style requirements of Fed. R. App. P. 32(a)(6)
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`because it has been prepared in Microsoft Word Version 2304 using a
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`proportionally spaced typeface, 14-point Century Schoolbook.
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`This document complies with the type-volume limit of Fed. R. App. P.
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`29(a)(5) (suggesting a limit of “one-half the maximum length authorized
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`by these rules for a party’s principal brief”) because, excluding the parts
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`of the document exempted by Fed. R. App. P. 32(f), this brief contains
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`2,589 words.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`s/ Eric N. Kniffin
`Eric N. Kniffin
`Counsel for Amicus Curiae
`
`
`
`
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`17
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`USCA4 Appeal: 23-1890 Doc: 31-1 Filed: 09/06/2023 Pg: 24 of 24
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`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
`I, Eric Kniffin, an attorney, certify that the foregoing Brief was served
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`electronically on all parties via CM/ECF.
`
`
`
`
`s/ Eric N. Kniffin
`Eric N. Kniffin
`Counsel for Amicus Curiae
`
`
`
`
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`18
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`
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