With signs that read "Fire Gen. Pace!" and chants of "Gen. Pace has got to go," members of the gay and lesbian community want more than just an apology--they want General Peter Pace out. In a political demonstration of nearly 200 protestors and members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Justice rallied outside the U.S. Recruiting Center in New York City's Times Square demanding that Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, resign after he called gay and lesbian sexual relationships "immoral" as he defended the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. (See also: Gen. Pace Won't Apologize for Calling Gays 'Immoral')
Eric Sawyer, cofounder of ACT UP, said the anti-gay bias within the military should not be allowed. He said Pace's comment sends a dangerous signal that gays don't belong in the military.
"It's totally unacceptable that the chief soldier of the nation is spewing hate," said Sawyer. "He is putting forth policy denying gays the right to serve in the military based on his personal hatred of gays."
Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who is gay, also made an appearance at the rally. "As a country, as a nation, we are better than this, yet somehow inexplicably [gays] are the last tolerated focus of discrimination," McGreevey said.
Since Pace's remark, several gay-advocacy groups, including the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) and Empire State Pride Agenda have made efforts to get an apology from Pace. Today, seven high-ranking military veterans "came out" to show support. Pace only has issued a statement acknowledging his comment, stating, "I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views."
Dawn Wolfe, director of communications of the Triangle Foundation, a LGBT civil-rights group based in Michigan, says Pace is the one who is immoral.
"We have a military that can torture people, but we don't have a military that can accept loving, same-sex relationships. That's what is immoral," says Wolfe.
Pace is not the only one under fire. A New York Times articles states that gay-rights advocates were upset with Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for not immediately commenting about Pace's use of the word "immoral."
Clinton was quoted as saying it was up to "others to conclude" whether gays and lesbians were "immoral." Her statement received so much criticism from gay-rights groups, whom she has been actively courting, that Clinton later retracted her passivity, explaining she did not believe gays and lesbians were immoral. Advocates from the Human Rights Campaign also contacted Obama, who had been avoiding the morality question three days in a row. Obama eventually issued a statement expressing he did "not agree with Gen. Pace that homosexuality is immoral."
Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), is grateful for the media's coverage on Pace and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
"This is allowing more and more people to understand that the military's discriminatory policy is rooted not in any legitimate military need but rather in personal prejudice," Giuliano said in a statement.
(See also: DiversityInc reader responses in Your Comments on Whether Gen. Pace Should Resign)
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