The controversy surrounding the eventual statewide implementation of an LGBTQ curriculum in public schools is deepening as local religious communities continue to protest the mandate while LGBTQ advocates call the backlash “alarming.”

Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation last year requiring all middle and high schools to incorporate the political, social, and economic contributions of LGBTQ people into their curriculum by next fall.

Elected officials and LGBTQ advocates say the curriculum will give students a fuller understanding of U.S. and world history, among other subjects.

But members of Hudson County religious communities, including some Coptic Christians and Muslims, have called on the school boards in both Jersey City and Bayonne to reject the curriculum, citing religious freedom and the First Amendment.

The Bayonne Board of Education heard from voices on both sides of the issue during a meeting Tuesday, including a Bayonne High School student who said as a Coptic Orthodox Christian, she doesn’t believe in LGBTQ orientations.

“I have nothing against anyone who believes in this, but me personally, I don’t,” she said.

Dozens of Coptics and Muslims attended a Jan. 30 BOE meeting in Jersey City and implored the school board to not implement the curriculum.

“I am a bible believing Christian … facts about sex need to be taught at home. It is an assault to our freedom,” one parent said. “Clearly stated in the U.S. Constitution, teaching our children about lifestyles goes against our family values and faith.”

But Gene Wood, the president of the Bayonne Teachers Association, said those who object are missing the intent of the legislation.

“The curriculum is not about teaching sex,” Wood said during Tuesday’s meeting in Bayonne. “It is about teaching about the historical contributions of the members of society who have always been taught but students have never been able to see themselves in it. It’s one of the reasons why many people don’t turn to certain careers.”

Twelve schools throughout the state are currently testing a pilot curriculum.

In a letter to the editor in The Jersey Journal, the Hudson County Democratic Organization’s LGBTQ Caucus said the rhetoric coming out of the BOE meetings “unfortunately reflects the all too familiar message the LGBTQ community faces regularly … We at the Hudson County Democratic Organization’s LGBTQ Caucus find these comments to be alarming, to say the least.”

“No discussion of the Allied victory in World War II is complete without the inclusion of Alan Turing. No discussion of the Civil Rights Movement is complete without the inclusion of the Stonewall uprising. The list goes on.”

But it’s not just religious communities vexed by the law. State Assemblyman Robert Auth, R-Bergen, proposed a bill that would require the state to pay to send students to private school if their parents are offended by the curriculum.

Barnegat Mayor Alfonso Cirulli, meanwhile, said the curriculum would “indoctrinate” students.

Hoboken Councilman Mike DeFusco, the first openly gay man to hold public office in Hudson County and a member of the LGBTQ Caucus, said it wasn’t until he was in his 20s that he learned about the contributions of Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official.

“There’s a track record of LGBT influencers that needs to be taught to our kids and their parents,” he said, adding that he’s open to meeting with religious groups to hear their concerns.

“I think that we all need to understand that difference are amazing, differences create the democracy that we have.”

Ahmed Shedeed, the president of the Islamic Center of Jersey City, said he has no problem with teaching the accomplishments of LGBTQ people.

“I live in America. I know that people exist," he said. “If it’s in history, it’s a part of history.”

But public school curriculum have been too silent on the contributions of members of “other marginalized communities, such as the Muslim, Jewish, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities,” he added in an email. “If we are to build a stronger community through love, peace, and acceptance, we should embrace the contributions of ALL people, especially minorities, and weave it into the curriculum of students.”

Members of the Coptic Christian community returned to the Jersey Board of Education meeting Thursday to speak out against the LGBT curriculum and and LGBT advocacy group, Garden State Equality.