On March 12, 2007, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs told reporters that, “I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is okay to be immoral in any way.” He continued the interview by saying, “As an individual, I would not want [acceptance of gay behavior] to be our policy,” he said, “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.”

General Pace later issued a statement (not an apology) to acknowledge that he “should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views.” 

Set aside for the moment that he is equating the way I love and experience pleasure to someone cheating on their spouse. This man was speaking to reporters in his role as the highest ranking military officer in the nation and in opposition to the Department of Defense policy of don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue.

The basic mission of the military is to provide the forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of the United States.  They must do so without a draft. These volunteers join in the knowledge that they may be asked to lay down their lives so that the rest of us may live in peace. Some see the military as a calling and too many have returned to the homeland after having left body parts in foreign lands. A lamentable number never return at all.

They are heroes. We don’t ask heroes for their sexual orientation before letting them make sacrifices on our behalf.  Instead, we thank them and honor them for doing the right thing, the brave thing, the noble thing.

General Pace’s remarks are a slap in the face to the many gay men and lesbians who have served with distinction. Gays and lesbians subscribe to the same values of the military including duty, honor, and loyalty. Their service and sacrifice should be respected.

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt.

From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910