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Pace clarifies comments on gays in uniform

The U.S. military’s top officer came just short of issuing an apology Tuesday for calling homosexuality “immoral,” saying he regretted offering his own moral views during a news interview and should have limited his remarks to the military’s current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

“In expressing my support for the current policy, I also offered some personal opinions about moral conduct,” said Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a statement posted in mid-afternoon on the Defense Department’s Web site.

“I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views.”

Senior aides had said earlier Tuesday that Pace would have no comment and that no apology was forthcoming.

At the tail end of a wide-ranging editorial board meeting Monday with editors of the Chicago Tribune, Pace was asked whether he thought “don’t ask, don’t tell” remains viable.

The policy requires the military to discharge service members who are caught in a homosexual act, who openly state they are homosexual or who marry someone of the same gender. Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., introduced a bill March 2 that would repeal the law, and retired Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, recently said in a New York Times editorial that he agrees.

According to a partial transcript supplied by his office, Pace said he supports the current policy, then added: “I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral, and that we should not condone immoral acts.”

He said the policy allows homosexuals to serve the country but that if their sexual orientation is discovered, the military has a “responsibility to do something about it.”

Not doing so, he said, “would be condoning what I believe is immoral activity.”

Pace also said: “That is why I’m comfortable with the current [policy] because it does not make a judgment about the morality of individual acts.” He likened homosexual activity to adultery.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to say Tuesday whether Defense Secretary Robert Gates had spoken to Pace since his comments were published. But Tuesday afternoon, shortly after Pace clarified his earlier remarks, Gates issued a statement of his own saying that he supports current law and policy.

“It is my responsibility to execute that policy as effectively as we can as long as the law is what it is; that’s what we’ll do,” Gates said in an interview with the Pentagon Channel, the Defense Department’s internal broadcast outlet.

Gates said personal opinion has no bearing in enforcing the current law. “What’s important is that we have a law, a statute that governs don’t ask, don’t tell, and that’s the policy of this department,” he said.

Pace’s comments in the Tribune interview Monday drew a quick reproach from Sen. John Warner, R-Va., former chairman of the Senate Armed Service s Committee.

“I respectfully but strongly disagree with the chairman’s view that homosexuality is immoral,” Warner said in a statement released by his office. “In keeping with my longstanding respect for the armed services committee hearing process, I will decline to comment on the current policy until after such hearings are held.”

An advocacy group that speaks for homosexual service members said today that Pace has insulted current gay and lesbian service members and that his remarks may have had a detrimental impact on good order and discipline.

“We believe Gen. [Peter] Pace’s comments were out of line, outrageous and disrespectful to the men and women in uniform,” said Steve Ralls, spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in Washington.

“Military leaders set the example for the men and women of the armed forces,” and such comments “could foster a more hostile environment for gays and lesbians,” Ralls said.

Ralls said Pace is entitled to his personal opinion, but “our objection is when his personal opinion impacts national policy.”

“There’s a clear line, and Gen. Pace crossed that line,” Ralls said, because Pace was speaking not as an individual but as a government official whose opinion “obviously carries great credibility with members of Congress and members of the military.”

About 23 percent of troops say they are sure someone in their unit is gay, according to December Zogby poll. Of those troops, the poll found, 55 percent said they found out directly from the individual.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” enacted in 1993, forbids the Defense Department from investigating a service member specifically about his or her sexual orientation but requires a discharge if that is discovered or admitted. It states, “Sexual orientation is considered a personal and private matter Â… and is not a bar to service entry or continued, service unless manifested by homosexual conduct.”

Roughly 10,700 service members have been kicked out of the military since the policy went into effect, according to the Pentagon.

Asked whether Pace’s comments might create a more hostile environment for gays currently in the service, Whitman referred reporters to the law.

The policy “is based on conduct, not orientation,” he noted.

SLDN’s Ralls said he believes the military is “ill-served” by “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and that Congress should strike down the law and allow the U.S. military to allow gays to serve openly, as is the case with many European allies, Israel, Canada and Australia, Ralls said.

Discussion board:

Are attitudes about gays serving in the military changing?