The northern Virginia school where Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, will be returning to teach art, bans LGBTQ employees and students. Other “moral misconduct” prohibitions include single employees having sex and cohabiting.
A parent agreement on the Immanuel Christian School website says the school will not admit students who condone, participate in, or support “homosexual activity or bi-sexual activity,” HuffPost reported. Likewise, the school’s 2018 employment application lists as misconduct, “homosexual or lesbian sexual activity,” in addition to “transgender identity.”
“I understand that the term ‘marriage’ has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman,” the employment application states. “Moral misconduct which violates the bona fide occupational qualifications for employees includes, but is not limited to, such behaviors as the following: heterosexual activity outside of marriage (e.g., premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex), homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female, sexual harassment, use or viewing of pornographic material or websites, and sexual abuse or improprieties toward minors as defined by Scripture and federal or state law.”
Pence will work at the school twice a week until May. She previously worked there for 12 years while her husband was in Congress. In 1991, she wrote a letter to the editor of the Indianapolis Star, objecting to an article that was accepting of the LGBTQ community, the Washington Post reported.
Her husband has taken anti-LGBTQ positions. They include comments while as a congressman and as governor of Indiana. In a 2006 speech, he suggested that gay relationships signaled “societal collapse.” He also opposed an Obama administration directive that would allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.
Kara Brooks, a spokeswoman for Karen Pence said it’s “absurd” that Mrs. Pence’s decision to teach art at a Christian school, as well as the school’s religious beliefs, are under attack,” according to HuffPost.
Meanwhile, JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president for policy and political affairs at the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement to HuffPost that, “The Pences never seem to miss an opportunity to show their public service only extends to some.” Winterhof also wondered why Karen Pence wouldn’t instead “teach at a school that welcomes everyone?”