A Maryland school district, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, is being sued by two anonymous parents who allege that school staff facilitated their daughter's social gender transition without telling them or seeking their consent, and then cited district policy to justify withholding the information. The case, brought by the conservative legal group America First Legal (AFL), matters because it forms part of a growing wave of legal challenges to school policies that allow staff to keep a pupil's gender identity from parents, testing the balance between such policies and parents' asserted constitutional rights.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of "John and Jane Doe", argues the district's policies breach the parents' First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and equivalent provisions of the Maryland Constitution. AFL points to the US Supreme Court's decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta, which it says reinforced parents' rights over decisions about their children. Counsel Ian Prior alleges the school referred to the daughter by a male name and identity without consent and "lied" when questioned. According to the complaint, the dispute began in December 2025 after a teacher accidentally emailed the parents. The school district's side of the account is not included in the article.