Second lady Karen Pence is teaching art at a school that bans gay employees, students and parents, HuffPost reported Tuesday.
Pence just started the twice-a-week job at Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia, which says it refuses admission to LGBT students or those who condone homosexuality. Its 2018 employment application requires candidates to sign a pledge not to engage in homosexual activity or violate the “unique roles of male and female.”
The application specifies: “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.”
The application also says that the school believes “marriage unites one man and one woman” and that “a wife is commanded to submit to her husband as the church submits to Christ,” HuffPost reports. Applicants are also asked to explain where they stand on the “creation/evolution debate.”
Additionally, parents are required to sign a “biblical morality” agreement acknowledging that marriage is a heterosexual institution and disavowing “sexual immorality, homosexual activity or bi-sexual activity.”
Karen Pence previously taught at the school for 12 years, while her husband, current Vice President Mike Pence, was in Congress.
Asked to comment on the school’s anti-LGBT policies, Karen Pence’s spokeswoman Kara Brooks said, “It’s absurd that her decision to teach art to children at a Christian school, and the school’s religious beliefs, are under attack.”
Mike Pence has a long history of anti-LGBT views dating back to his time as a congressman and Indiana governor. They have persisted into his current role. In September, he became the first vice president to speak at the anti-LGBT Value Voters Summit.
The Trump administration also has an extensive anti-LGBT record, ranging from President Trump’s refusal to acknowledge June as LGBT Pride Month (reversing a policy observed for eight years by President Obama) to Trump’s declaration via tweet that transgender troops would no longer be allowed to serve in the military.
