Mike “conversion therapy” Pence isn’t the only one in his household with a vitriolic anti-gay stance. His wife, Karen, aka “Mother,” worked for the twelve years Pence was in Congress at Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia, and she has returned there to work two days a week as an art teacher. Immanuel distinguishes itself from other institutions of learning by making educators “sign a pledge not to engage in homosexual activity or violate the ‘unique roles of male and female.’” Huffington Post:
“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,” says the application.
The application 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.” The application asks potential employees to explain their view of the “creation/evolution debate.”
The “parent agreement” asks parents to cooperate in its “biblical morality” policy. Under this policy, parents are to acknowledge the sanctity of marriage as a strictly heterosexual practice. Families who condone, practice or support “sexual immorality, homosexual activity or bi-sexual activity” go against the principles of the school, per the document.
Immanuel is a private school, and private schools may discriminate on the basis of sexual identity. Oh, and that’s a pretty nifty job application that asks prospective employees to weigh in on the “creation/evolution debate.” Righto. The world is only 6,000 years old and so forth.
The debate that intrigues me is “Who is worse? Trump or Pence?” Now that’s a hard topic to tackle because Trump is a destructive blowhard, but Pence with his fundie, wingnut views is in many ways even more monstrous. We need to run them both out of town.