Gen. Pace and Homosexuality

Already the fur is beginning to fly about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Peter Pace's comments regarding homosexuality and the military. The Chicago Tribune conducted a "wide ranging" interview and the matter of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy came up. The Chicago Tribue headline reads:

Top General calls homosexuality 'immoral.'

But the story says something very different, that homosexual acts are immoral.

The press is saying that Gen. Pace believes that homosexuality is immoral. But that is not what Pace said. According to the audio soundbite, Pace says "Homosexual acts between individuals are immoral." That is the act of homosexual sex is immoral.

For Pace, homosexual acts and adulterous acts are morally equivalent. It is against military rules to have adulterous sex with the spouse of another military person, and there have been prosecutions on the matter. It is also against the military's rules to have sex with someone of the same gender. Note that it is the acts that are being prosecuted, not the thoughts.

Many a military member may have adulterous thoughts about someone else's wife (I know I did), but the personal discpline to not act on those thoughts is the hallmark of a moral individual. Similarly, a person may have homosexual thoughts, but not acting on them would meet Gen. Pace's definition of morality in these cases. A person chooses their course of action and it is their actions that are moral or immoral, not their thoughts.

Of course gay rights activists are going to go after Gen. Pace with a vengence, noting among other things that gays don't get to choose who they are. But that is a false argument. First, there are two choices that have to be willingly made in order for a military member to be dismissed from the service for being homosexual. First, they have to volunteer for the military. That act of volunteering means that you are willingly accepting to live under and abide by military policies, including don't ask, don't tell. Second, that person must, by some sort of affirmative action, make their sexual preferences known, whether by announcing them publicly to their commanding officer or by engaging in homosexual activity. While gays may not be able to choose their sexual orientation, they can and regularly do choose whether or not to act upon their desires. This is no different from a man having sexual relations with a married woman who is not his wife. He may have feelings of attraction for a person but not act upon them. He cannot be prosecuted for his thoughts any more than a gay man can be prosecuted for his thoughts. But if each acts upon them, those two men have committed what the military considered to be immoral acts.

I don't know if Gen. Pace believes homosexuality as a lifestyle is something a person is born with or not, whether it is hard wired into a person or not. I don't know and personally don't really care. In the world of an all-volunteer force, if a gay or lesbian wants to serve, they know about the policy in advance and so long as they keep their sexual preferences a secret, they can serve. But they know the consequences if they cross the line.