NY Times editorial: General Pace and Gay Soldiers

The New York Times
March 15, 2007
Editorial
General Pace and Gay Soldiers

There’s a good reason that military officers avoid commenting on politics, society and public policy. The results are usually bad.

Consider the offensive comments that Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made this week about gay people. They carried a special measure of hurt coming from the nation’s highest military officer when thousands of gay men and lesbians are serving their country in Iraq.

By refusing to apologize, General Pace compounded the injury and reminded the entire country of what happened the last time the top brass took on this subject. It was Gen. Colin Powell’s public rebuke of a new president, Bill Clinton, for even entertaining the idea of allowing homosexuals to serve openly that led to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

It is a bad system, which has ruined people’s lives and hurt the military, but it still is the policy, established by General Pace’s civilian bosses, and it allows gay people to serve as long as they don’t say anything about their orientation.

Which made it all the more offensive to read that General Pace told the editorial board of The Chicago Tribune that he believes homosexuality is an intolerable immoral act equivalent to adultery.

Instead of apologizing, General Pace later said his mistake was focusing his comments on his view of morality instead of on military policy.

General Pace is wrong in every way, and out of step. An increasing number of Americans in and out of the military now recognize that the current policy is indefensible. Those Americans include Gen. John Shalikashvili, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs when the benighted policy was adopted. In an Op-Ed article in this newspaper in January, General Shalikashvili wrote that conversations with gay soldiers and marines had showed him “that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers.”

General Pace should still apologize for his remarks, forthrightly. Then perhaps some good could come out of his bigoted remarks if they added to the growing movement on Capitol Hill to finally allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

March 15, 2007
General Pace, Gays and Morality (4 Letters)

To the Editor:

Re “Top General Explains Remarks on Gays” (news article, March 14):

Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has refused to apologize for his remarks about what he called the immorality of homosexual conduct. While I understand that this is his opinion, it is not an opinion shared by everyone. But I think that most people would agree that bigotry is immoral.

General Pace demonstrates marked ignorance and bigotry, and that kind of immorality doesn’t belong in our military ... or our society.

(Rev.) William H. Carey
Ferndale, Mich., March 14, 2007

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To the Editor:

In a 6-to-3 decision in 2003, the United States Supreme Court declared: “The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.”

The petitioners were gay Americans, and the case was Lawrence v. Texas. The decision of the court nullified all remaining laws regulating sexual conduct between consenting adults in America.

Gen. Peter Pace should spend less time broadcasting his unfortunate prejudices and more time respecting the law of the land.

Charles Kaiser
New York, March 14, 2007
The writer is the author of “The Gay Metropolis.”

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To the Editor:

It’s nothing new to gay Americans to be insulted by the Bush administration, so Gen. Peter Pace’s statement that he regards thousands of gay service members as immoral can hardly come as a surprise to anyone.

But surely President Bush or Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates or even General Pace himself should offer apologies to Britain and many of our other allies. These countries welcome gay men and lesbians into their armed services, and their gay troops have fought and bled with Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Surely decency demands that someone apologize for insulting these fine soldiers.

Kathy Heggemeier
Portsmouth, Va., March 14, 2007

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To the Editor:

It is the ultimate irony that a general in the United States Marines and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should talk of morality. The man’s job and the very nature of the armed services is to oversee and execute the job of killing human beings.

I will spare the reader a rehashing of the lengthy list of other atrocities committed during this particular war and the disproportionate horror of those acts in comparison with the issues of adultery and homosexuality.

Ames Adamson
Philadelphia, March 14, 2007

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