Apology demanded from general who called gay sex immoral

Senior aides to the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff said today that US Marine General Peter Pace will not apologise for calling homosexuality immoral, an opinion that gay advocacy groups deplored.

In a newspaper interview yesterday, 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 Defence Network said in a statement on its website.

The group has represented some of the thousands dismissed from the military for their sexual orientation.

Pace’s senior staff members said today that the general was expressing his personal opinion and did not intend to apologise.

Rep. Martin Meehan, who has introduced legislation to repeal the current policy, criticised Pace’s comments.

“General Pace’s statements aren’t in line with either the majority of the public or the military,” said the Democrat. “He needs to recognise 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 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 that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,” Pace said in the audio recording of the interview posted on the Tribune’s website.

“I do not believe that the armed forces of the United States are well served by a saying through our policies that it’s okay to be immoral in any way.”

Pace, a 1967 graduate of the US 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, according to the audio and a transcript released by his staff.

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.

“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.