WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff has said he regrets telling the Chicago Tribune editorial board he considers homosexuality "immoral."
"I should have focused more on my support of the (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) policy and less on my personal moral views," Marine Gen. Peter Pace said in a written statement Monday.
The Tribune, in an interview published Sunday, had asked Pace whether Don't Ask, Don't Tell - the military policy and U.S. law regarding homosexuals in the service - should be revised.
"I made two points in support of the policy during the interview," Pace said. "One, 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' allows individuals to service this nation; and two, it does not make a judgment about the morality of individual acts."
Pace's critics have condemned his statement, saying it could create a hostile environment for homosexuals serving in the military.
DADT was instituted in 1994 as a compromise between then President Bill Clinton's desire to lift the outright ban on homosexuals in the military and the military's resistance to changing the ban. The compromise was that homosexuals may serve in the military as long as they do not declare their orientation or act on it. For its part, the military would not be allowed to ask service members if they are gay or investigate them.
More than 10,000 people have been separated from the military for being gay since 1994. In the three years prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the military was firing or accepting the resignations of between 1,000 and 1,227 service members annually under the law. Since the terrorist attacks and the commencement of two wars, the number of gay separations has dropped to below 900 each year.
The unofficial 2006 separations total just over 600, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
