Comment & Debate
“Gays in the US military.” Religious tolerance: “In the past, gays and lesbians were not permitted in any of the armed forces in the West. Most countries have abandoned their anti-gay policies in recent years, as mental health professionals determined that a homosexual orientation is fixed, and unchosen, a normal and natural orientation for a minority of adults, and not a mental illness. Among the armies in the Western industrialized world, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK allow gays and lesbians to serve freely.”
Former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, Republican of Virginia: “I respectfully, but strongly, disagree with the chairman’s [Marine General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2007] view that homosexuality is immoral.”[1]