Peter Pace’s Family Values
General Peter Pace, the out-going Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is concerned about families . . . but, one presumes, only the heterosexual ones.
Explaining to reporters why he is now contemplating yet another "surge" of troops into Iraq, Pace said that extending tours for service personnel already in Iraq "has an impact on families."
Suddenly, the General has found family values.
That certainly wasn't the case earlier this year, when Pace referred to lesbians and gays as "immoral," and went out of his way to defend "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." He didn't stop then to consider the impact of the ban on same-sex families, nor did he ever apologize to the families of lesbian and gay troops, many of whom were beyond offended.
As SLDN recently pointed out in an article in the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" makes a difficult situation almost impossible for gay troops.
The Duke Journal article notes that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law “impacts -- emotionally, financially, and legally -- the lives of the partners and children of gay service members.” The plight of gay military families “has garnered little public attention because few families headed by a same-sex couple, in which one partner is currently serving in the armed forces, are willing to risk a career-ending move to tell their story, let alone face the loss of familial privacy by making such a public statement.”
But those sacrifices, and the added burden the military's ban places on lesbian and gay service personnel, never registered on Pace's radar.
If Peter Pace really wants to stand up for military families, he should stand up for all of them, and call on Congress to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Because, while there's no question that extending deployments "has an impact" on families, there's no question that discrimination and federally enforced silence does, too.
- Steve RallsLabels: in the news, peter pace
-----07-17-07
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