Fighting the General
President Clinton handled the issue of gays in the military by signing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy into law in 1994. The US military supports it to maintain order and discipline in the armed services.
The top U.S. military officer, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, doesn’t plan to apologize for telling a newspaper that homosexuality is immoral, his senior staff told CNN on Tuesday.
Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune on Monday that he supports the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy banning openly gay people from serving in the U.S. armed forces.
The general also compared homosexuality to adultery — behavior that is prosecuted in the military, he said.
“My upbringing is such that I believe that there are certain things, certain types of conduct that are immoral,” Pace told the Tribune. “I believe that military members who sleep with other military members’ wives are immoral in their conduct.”
Pace also told the paper, “I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral, and that we should not condone immoral acts.
“So the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ [policy] allows an individual to serve the country … if we know about immoral acts, regardless of committed by who, then we have a responsibility.
“I do not believe that the armed forces are well served by saying through our policies that it’s OK to be immoral in any way, not just with regards to homosexual acts,” the Joint Chiefs chairman said.
“So from that standpoint, saying that gays should serve openly in the military to me says that we, by policy, would be condoning what I believe is immoral activity,” he added.
The logic and reason behind the general’s statement clearly holds that sexual activity outside of marriage is immoral, and not knowingly tolerated in the highly disciplined military. Homosexuality falls in that category, as does adultery. Note the wording in the second line of this CNN story. Pace supports the current policy “banning openly gay people from serving in the U.S. armed forces.” There may be many members of the armed forces serving now who have same-sex attraction, but are keeping their private life private. That’s the key to the policy.
This is about prosecuting an ongoing battle against any part of the culture or establishment that holds the principle that sexuality should not be flaunted. In all the reporting I’ve seen on this, the reference to ‘people who are “openly gay” having a right to serve in the military’ keeps getting repeated. What I’ve always wondered is, what does “openly gay” mean? And why do gays want to be identified by their sexual preferences instead of, say, their character, skills, and accomplishments?