Washington father sues school district for denying religious opt-out for 5th grader from LGBTQ instruction

EXCLUSIVE — A Washington father is suing his sons public school district after he said his 10-year-old was taught about gender surgery during a Pride Month lesson despite the parent previously asking the school to excuse his child from LGBTQ-related instruction.

On Tuesday, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the father, Konstantin Averkiev, filed a federal lawsuit against Lake Washington School District, alleging officials violated Averkievs First and 14th Amendment rights by refusing to provide notice and allow his son to opt out of LGBTQ-related lessons and other school requirements that conflict with his religious beliefs.

The dispute began after Averkiev said he met with his sons fourth-grade teacher at Henry David Thoreau Elementary School in September 2025 and requested advance notice and an opt-out from lessons involving LGBTQ topics, gender identity or gender transition.

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According to the complaint, the teacher agreed, but Averkiev subsequently found out his son had been taught a June Pride Month lesson that allegedly included a classroom discussion of gender-change surgery.

The teacher then said he remembered Averkievs request and told him he "should have sent the lessons ahead of time," according to messages cited in the lawsuit. However, Averkiev said that the district later rejected nearly all of his broader opt-out requests as his son prepared to enter fifth grade.

The Pride Month presentation, taught to fourth and fifth-grade students, described same-sex attraction, transgender identity and the Stonewall uprising, a series of protests from people who identified as LGBTQ+ against a police raid on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in New York City's Greenwich Village, according to materials cited in the complaint.

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Averkiev also alleged the classroom discussion went further than just the slides. His son told him the class had discussed gender-change surgery, meaning the father argues he would not have known the subject was coming even if the school had provided him the presentation in advance.

With his son starting fifth grade, Averkiev, with the help of ADF attorneys, asked the district to excuse his son from LGBTQ-related instruction and requirements, including individual counseling sessions and the use of pronouns that conflict with his religious beliefs, according to ADF.

ADF said the district rejected nearly all of Averkievs requests, granting only opt-outs for sex-education curriculum and health surveys, which the legal group noted are already required under Washington state law.

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