A right-wing law firm has threatened to sue North Carolina’s Wake County Public School system if it does not allow parents to opt their kids out of a class taught by a transgender teacher

The Thomas More Society — a prolific Christian nationalist litigator with a history of cases challenging marriage equality, abortion rights, and President Joe Biden’s election in 2020 – sent a letter to the school on September 15 with a list of demands and gave officials 15 days to implement them before it sues.

In addition to allowing parents to opt their kids out, the firm says the school must agree not to discipline students for using incorrect pronouns for the teacher in question and must agree that no employee can retaliate against a student who opts out of the class or other discussions of LGBTQ+ issues.

The firm argues that the school is legally obligated to provide these accommodations based in part on the Supreme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a 2025 decision that said schools must allow religious parents to opt their students out of classes containing LGBTQ+ content.

In a July 27 Facebook post, state Rep. Erin Paré (R) said constituents had expressed concern to her “about the hiring of a transgender biological male, who dresses as a woman, music teacher, in one of our local elementary schools.”

Paré supported a bill last year to legally erase trans identities in the state and make it harder for doctors to provide gender-affirming care to youth. Lawmakers overrode Gov. Josh Stein’s (D) veto of the bill, and it took effect on January 1 of this year.

Paré is also currently running for reelection and has criticized her opponent for being a “Transgender Activist.” Her Facebook contains several posts blasting the “Trans Agenda” and “grown men wearing dresses.”

The story was then amplified by the anti-LGBTQ+ account Libs of TikTok, run by Chaya Raichik, who has repeatedly been identified as a stochastic terrorist.

But not everyone in the district is out for blood.

At an August school board meeting addressing the teacher controversy, supporters turned out en masse to defend her.