Posted on 03/13/2007 11:09:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
Senior aides to the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday that Marine Gen. Peter Pace won't apologize for calling homosexuality immoral _ an opinion that gay advocacy groups deplored.
In a newspaper interview Monday, Pace had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.
"General Pace's comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces," the advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said in a statement on its Web site.
The group has represented some of the thousands dismissed from the military for their sexual orientation.
Pace's senior staff members said Tuesday that the general was expressing his personal opinion and had no intention of apologizing. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak on the record.
Rep. Martin Meehan, who has introduced legislation to repeal the current policy, criticized Pace's comments.
"General Pace's statements aren't in line with either the majority of the public or the military," said the Massachusetts Democrat. "He needs to recognize that support for overturning (the policy) is strong and growing" and that the military is "turning away good troops to enforce a costly policy of discrimination."
In an interview Monday with the Chicago Tribune, Pace was asked about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve if they keep their sexual orientation private and don't engage in homosexual acts.
Pace said he supports the policy, which became law in 1994 and prohibits commanders from asking about a person's sexual orientation.
"I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts," Pace was quoted as saying in the newspaper interview. "I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way."
Pace, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, said he based his views on his upbringing.
"As an individual, I would not want (acceptance of gay behavior) to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else's wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior," he said.
The newspaper said Pace did not address concerns raised by a 2005 government audit that showed some 10,000 troops, including more than 50 specialists in Arabic, have been discharged because of the policy.
Louis Vizcaino, spokesman for the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said Pace's comments were "insulting and offensive to the men and women ... who are serving in the military honorably."
"Right now there are men and women that are in the battle lines, that are in the trenches, they're serving their country," Vizcaino said. "Their sexual orientation has nothing to do with their capability to serve in the U.S. military."
"Don't ask, don't tell" was passed by Congress in 1993 after a firestorm of debate in which advocates argued that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would hurt troop morale and recruitment and undermine the cohesion of combat units.
John Shalikashvili, the retired Army general who was Joint Chiefs chairman when the policy was adopted, said in January that he has changed his mind on the issue since meeting with gay servicemen.
"These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers," Shalikashvili wrote in a newspaper opinion piece
Because he didn't talk about anal sex in flowery civil rights language?
The Gaystapo really hates the truth and those who speak the truth.
Apologize for telling the truth? I guess he should say, "I'm sorry, homosexuality is immoral" or "I'm sorry to say that homosexuality is immoral".
"General Pace's statements aren't in line with either the majority of the public or the military," said the Massachusetts Democrat. "......
One man with courage is a majority.
That wasn't long...
Where in the world do they dream up these numbers? That may be their wishfull thinking, but it sure isn't anywhere near reality. If it were, and I were general, I'd send them all to the front line with six rounds each.
CNN is asking right now what our opinion is...
cnnnewsroom@cnn.com
Let them know, that Pace has every right to his opinion. The left only think free speech applies to them.
By the way, why did Kirin Chetney go over to CNN?
You certainly have a way with words! And God love the General for his statement and his refusal to back away from it. He knew what was coming when he said it and he said it anyway. Good for him. Now THAT is a stand up guy.
General Pace apoligized for injecting his personal opinion in the print piece when he should have just spoken about the military's view of the issue (in reference to don't ask, don't tell).
He DID NOT apologize for his views, IMO.
General Pace is NOT a faggot.
I actually disagree with the policy -- I tend to think we could do what Israel does -- but Pace was simply answering a question. He has no axe to grind. He said he supports CLINTON's compromise, the DADT policy. Apparently that's not good enough for these bigoted mau-mau'ers.
General Pace is hardly outrageous. It is the TRUTH. Homosexual acts are acts of grave depravity, and are contrary to natural law. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
However, many men and women do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. Unjust discrimination must be avoided. These people are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. Basically they are called to chastity. Military policy is both just and consistent.
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