Local

Karen Pence accepts teaching job at school that bans LGBT students, families

admission and employee guidelines denounce homosexuality, trans identity

Published

6 years ago

January 17, 2019

**Karen Pence** (Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons)

Second Lady Karen Pence has accepted a position as an art teacher at the Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Va., which does not allow LGBT students or families to enroll and will not offer employment to LGBT applicants.

The school’s guidelines are listed in its “parent agreement” which states Immanuel Christian School “can refuse admission to an applicant or to discontinue enrollment if the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home, the activities of a parent or guardian, or the activities of the student are counter to, or are in opposition to, the biblical lifestyle the school teaches.”

“This includes, but is not limited to contumacious behavior, divisive conduct, and participating in, supporting, or condoning sexual immorality, homosexual activity or bi-sexual activity, promoting such practices, or being unable to support the moral principles of the school. (Lev. 20:13 and Romans 1:27.) I acknowledge the importance of a family culture based on biblical principles and embrace biblical family values such as a healthy marriage between one man and one woman,” the agreement continues.

Immanuel Christian School also requires applicants to agree to its guidelines on its employment application. One guideline states that the applicant will not engage in “moral misconduct” which includes “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 teach at the school, where she also taught while Vice President Mike Pence was in Congress, two days a week. In a statement, she says she is looking forward to returning to teach.

“I am excited to be back in the classroom and doing what I love to do, which is to teach art to elementary students,” Pence said.

Kara Brooks, Pence’s spokeswoman, defended the decision in another statement saying “Mrs Pence has returned to the school where she previously taught for 12 years.It’s absurd that her decision to teach art to children at a Christian school, and the school’s religious beliefs, are under attack.”

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Virginia

Va. Senate approves resolution to repeal marriage amendment

Two successive legislatures must approve proposal before it goes to voters

Published

5 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Staff reports

(Bigstock photo)

The Virginia Senate on Tuesday approved a resolution that seeks to repeal a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The resolution that state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) introduced passed by a 24-15 vote margin. An identical measure that state Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County) has proposed passed in the Virginia House of Delegates last week.

Sickles and Ebbin are both gay.

Voters approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment in 2006.

Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin last year signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.

The General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that seeks to repeal the Marshall-Newman Amendment. It must pass in two successive legislatures before it can go to the ballot.

District of Columbia

Team Rayceen Productions goes on ‘indefinite’ hiatus

Local LGBTQ advocacy group’s co-founder resigns

Published

13 hours ago

January 21, 2025

Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Activist Rayceen Pendarvis will remain active in the community but colleague Zar announced his resignation. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Local community activist Zar, who founded the D.C. LGBTQ event and advocacy group Team Rayceen Productions in 2014 in collaboration with fellow activist Rayceen Pendarvis, announced he has resigned from his position as the group’s creative director effective Jan. 14.

His announcement says since there is currently “nobody who is willing, ready, or able to be my successor, I must also announce that the current Winter Hiatus of Team Rayceen Productions will continue indefinitely.”

The announcement says Rayceen Pendarvis will remain active in the community and remain available to be booked as a host, emcee, panelist, and wedding officiant in the role Pendarvis has played in the D.C. community for many years.

The primary motivation for his resignation at this time, Zar said in his announcement, is his deep concern about the problems he believes will surface during the incoming Trump administration.

“I am all but certain that the next four years and beyond will be chaotic, and possibly dystopian or apocalyptic,” he says in his announcement. “This is not the time for diplomacy, compromise, or capitulation,” he continues. “I understand that advocating for peaceful and nonviolent solutions is generally considered the only acceptable tactic; I am unwilling to abide.”

Out of deference to Pendarvis and others involved with Team Rayceen Productions, Zar said it would be unfair “to allow my personal and political views to be conflated with those of anyone else,” including those involved with Team Rayceen Productions.

“This requires my resignation,” Zar wrote in his announcement. “I am unwilling to be silent or censor myself.”

Zar said that while Team Rayceen Productions’ operations are currently on hold, its online content will remain available, “including over 900 videos created over the past five years for our YouTube channel and our Facebook live streams.”

District of Columbia

25K people attend People’s March in D.C.

President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is on Monday

Published

3 days ago

January 18, 2025

Michael K. Lavers

The People's March was held downtown Washington on Jan. 18, 2025. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Upwards of 25,000 people attended the People’s March that took place in D.C. on Saturday.

Participants — who protested against President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals they say would target transgender people, immigrants, women, and other groups — gathered at McPherson and Farragut Squares and Franklin Park before they joined the march that ended at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Gender Liberation Movement is among the groups that sponsored the march. Dozens of other People’s Marches took place in cities across the country on Saturday.

Trump’s inauguration will take place in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Monday.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Michael K. Lavers)