Gays in the military

Regarding the front-page article "Clinton Faces Early Showdown on Ban on Gays," Jan. 27: I am appalled by the arguments brought forward by some Pentagon officials and people in Congress to keep gays out of the military.

In my view, those who are afraid that opening the military to homosexuals would undermine the morale and the ability to fight ignore a few facts: There is more to gays and lesbians than their sexual orientation; heterosexual men in the military would not be exposed to sexual harassment more than women in the service are exposed to harassment; most of the 1,500 men and women expelled from the military last year because of their homosexuality did not harass other members of the service - though, at the sam e time, many cases of sexual harassment toward women in the military remain undetected and therefore unpunished. Thomas Kolb, Aalen, Germany

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