After Sidestepping, Clinton Accepts Gays BRIEFLY: UNITED STATES:: WASHINGTON

Asked whether she believed homosexuality was immoral, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, initially said that it was for “others to conclude,” but later issued a statement saying she did not think being gay was immoral.

Her remarks Wednesday came a day after General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he should not have publicly expressed his personal view that homosexual acts were immoral and akin to adultery. His views appeared in The Chicago Tribune on Monday.

A rival of Clinton’s for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, was asked the same question three times Wednesday and sidestepped the issue, according to an article in Newsday. But a spokesman for Obama said Wednesday night that the senator disagreed with Pace’s remarks and believed that homosexuality was not immoral.

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