I was wondering when the shrill doyenne of discrimination in the military would surface to opine on Gen. Peter Pace’s comments that gays are immoral. Elaine Donnelly of the anti-gay Center for Military Readiness surfaced in a piece at Daddy D’s CitizenLink today and it’s no surprise that she backs General Pace.

…Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, said calls for an apology from Pace are “absurd,” noting that the 1993 Homosexual Conduct law, which bans homosexuals in the military, is still in effect.

“He doesn’t need to apologize for supporting that law,” she said.

Donnelly said the ban on homosexuals serving in the military, she added, exists to protect good order, discipline and unit cohesion in “conditions of forced intimacy” in which military personnel may have little or no privacy from others who might be sexually attracted to them.

“The activists who are demanding an apology from General Pace have an agenda,” Donnelly said, “an agenda that should not be imposed on the armed services, the Marine Corps or any branch of the military.”

Focus on the Family’s Stephen Adams, who wrote the article, hilariously labels Servicemembers Legal Defense Network‘s director of communications Steve Ralls as a “homosexual activist” for calling for an apology from Pace.  [Go Steve! ]

What is this horrible agenda SLDN is pushing? To allow trained, ready and sorely-needed service members who happen to be gay and lesbian to openly serve in the military. National security is at risk; the remarks were disrespectful to these people who are laying their lives on the line so that Ms. Donnelly has the right to bleat about how gays need to be purged from the ranks of the military. Has she served…what is her sacrifice to the cause?

Why does Elaine Donnelly hate America — is keeping qualified, skilled Arabic linguists out of the military, for instance, more important than fighting Bush’s war on terror? She’s so unhinged about gays and lesbians serving that she claimed that members of The Homosexual Agenda somehow coerced former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John M. Shalikashvili into writing a NYT op-ed that called for a re-examination and repeal of DADT. My post on that is here.

This is what she said:

Donnelly notes that Shalikashvili has in the last year or so suffered a debilitating stroke and is, in her words, “struggling to retain his health.” She says it is “really sad” to see someone like the general being used by the homosexual propaganda machine as “the latest tool of a public relations campaign.”

Now THAT’s shameful. Why, for instance, isn’t Donnelly concerned about the following bits of business that have made the news…after the flip.Why hasn’t Donnelly been up in arms about:

* veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan to third world conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center;

* the fact that the Army placed a gag on vets at Walter Reed, telling them that if they wanted to speak to reporters about conditions there, they’d have  to limp out to the nearest Starbucks to do it;

* the number of convicted felons enlisted in the U.S. military has almost doubled in the past three years, and 43,977 individuals convicted of serious misdemeanors such as assault have enlisted under the moral waivers program, along with 58,561 illegal drug abusers;

* that there are military recruiters that have been caught running cocaine — in uniform;

* that branches of the military are lowering standards and recruiting people with antisocial personality disorder, autism, and trolling for recruits on MySpace, or the folks who are making the cut even though they have been convicted of aggravated assault, robbery, vehicular manslaughter, receiving stolen property and making terrorist threats.

That’s a long list of items that I doubt Ms. Donnelly will attend to because of her fixation on gays and lesbians.

***

More reaction, this from HRC’s Joe Solomonese, about Pace’s “clarification” that he was only (inappropriately) speaking about his personal beliefs to the Chicago Tribune. There is also an action alert to request an apology.

“President Bush and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates should follow the lead of Republican Senator John Warner and publicly repudiate Pace’s statements.”

Earlier today, Warner, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a statement saying: “I respectfully, but strongly disagree with the chairman’s view that homosexuality is immoral.”

Solmonese continued: “Chairman Pace should apologize immediately to the tens of thousands of gay and lesbian service members who are making huge sacrifices and risking their lives every day to protect our country. He has flatly refused to do so.

“What is truly immoral is maligning these service members with his bigoted statements.

“The chairman also is making matters worse by misrepresenting the failed military policy. He argues that the `Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy allows individuals to serve the nation and that it does not make a moral judgment. He doesn’t tell the truth on either account. What the chairman fails to admit in his latest statement is that the current policy requires people to hide, misrepresent and deny their basic identities. It also criminalizes gay relationships and is a constant source of stress and fear for our gay and lesbian troops.”

Related:
* Elaine Donnelly: Opposing Logic and Reality since 1993 
* Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: gays are ‘immoral’
* Gen. Pace: no apologies for calling gays immoral