Q And allow me to ask the question -- give you two minutes in the two hours and 31 minutes to talk about the issue of gays in the military, if I may. I'm concerned about the degradation of morality in our nation and our society, in the military as a whole, and I'm concerned with the long-term consequences of actions, not only on the issue with gays in the military, but also with actions associated with health care in terms of the funding of abortion -- issues such as that.

The Christian community is very concerned in this nation about those issues. And I'm somewhat disturbed, particularly, about the policy process for developing these programs.

The President: Let me answer -- let's just talk about the gays in the military, because we don't have a lot of time to go into all of it.

First of all, I think the military has a great moral fabric. I don't think you can over -- we know there are homosexuals in the military and always have been. We know that the Tailhook scandal occurred. I don't think Tailhook reflects on the whole Navy. I think the military has done more to give people a good, coherent set of values and a way to live and succeed in a very complicated and disintegrating world than most of the institutions in this country have. So I think that you should not worry about that.

Here is the issue: There are and always have been homosexuals in the military. The question is whether they should be kicked out not because of what they do, but because of who they are. My view is people should be judged on their conduct. I have not called for any change in the uniform code of conduct. I simply believe if people work hard, play by the rules and serve, they ought to be able to serve. That does not imply that the rest of the society agrees with the lifestyle, but you just accept as a fact that there are in every country and always have been homosexuals who are capable of honoring their country, laying down their lives for their country, and serving. And they should be judged based on their behavior, not their lifestyle. That's my view -- their behavior. It's a behavior test.

And I think that the difficult here -- (applause) -- let me say this: We almost have a compromise here. Most Americans believe if you don't ask and you don't say and you're not forced to confront it, people should be able to serve. Most Americans believe that the gay lifestyle should not be promoted by the military or anybody else in this country. The issue is a narrow one: Should you be able to acknowledge, if asked, that you are homosexual? And if you don't do anything wrong, should you be booted from the military? We are trying to work this out so that our country does not -- I understand what you're saying -- so that our country does not appear to be endorsing a gay lifestyle, but we accept people as people and give them a chance to serve if they play by the rules. I think that is the tough issue for us and I think we're very close to resolving it here.