Second lady joins Immanuel Christian school where students and teachers who condone homosexuality are not welcome

Karen Pence, the second lady of the United States, has started a job at a school that bans LGBT pupils and staff.

Pence, who is married to the vice-president, Mike Pence, will be teaching art twice a week at Immanuel Christian, an elementary school in northern Virginia.

The school makes parents sign an agreement, available online, which states that the school reserves the right to refuse admission to, or remove from the school, any pupil who participates in, supports or condones “sexual immorality, homosexual activity or bi-sexual activity”.

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A separate employment application makes any potential applicants promise not to engage in “premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex, homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female”.

In Virginia there is minimal statewide protection for LGBT people. It is legal for private employers to discriminate on the basis of sexual and gender identity.

The document signed by parents also asks that they do not “propagate doctrines” that are not in agreement with the belief that “God created the heavens and earth and all life by direct act, and not by undirected evolutionary process”. The job application asks potential teachers to agree that “a wife is commanded to submit to her husband”.

Karen Pence previously taught at the school when her husband was in Congress, but her decision to return to the school while he holds the second highest office in the US has sparked condemnation.

Martina Navratilova, the former tennis player and LGBT rights activist, tweeted: “Are you going to ban gay students too?!? And how exactly do you know who is what?!?!? Mother, You are a disgrace.”

Martina Navratilova (@Martina) Karen Pence Is Working At A School That Bans Gay Employees- are you going to ban gay students too?!? And how exactly do you know who is what?!?!? Mother, You are a disgrace. https://t.co/id6VD0JNni

JoDee Winterhof, senior vice-president for policy and political affairs at the Human Rights Campaign, also condemned the move in a statement to HuffPost, saying: “The Pences never seem to miss an opportunity to show their public service only extends to some.”

Before he was Trump's running mate, Mike Pence led the anti-LGBT backlash Read more

In her initial statement about taking the role, Pence did not mention the school’s discriminatory policies, simply saying, “I am excited to be back in the classroom and doing what I love to do. I have missed teaching art.”

Since the HuffPost reporter Rebecca Klein drew attention to passages in the school’s parental agreement, Pence’s spokeswoman, Kara Brooks, has said it’s “absurd” that Pence’s decision to teach art, “and the school’s religious beliefs”, are under attack.

Mike Pence has a history of deeply conservative views on LGBT rights. On his campaign website in 2000, he said that resources should be taken from “organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus” and “directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior”. Many have interpreted this statement as an expression of support for “gay conversion therapy”, although Pence has denied through spokespeople that this is what he meant.

