I would like to offer a few answers to the questions posed in the Oct. 13 letter "Policy shift logistically difficult": Those questions do not seem to be ignored on this page but rather often reasked and reanswered.

Let’s not overanalyze the situation of where will homosexual sailors, soldiers, Marines and airmen sleep and shower. They will sleep and shower where they currently do, alongside their fellow comrades. I’m sure on a daily basis I come into contact with someone who is gay. It is not going to affect my readiness or my mission if I were to learn that a woman who happens to shower when I do is a homosexual. It will not change the way I feel about taking my shower to get ready for the day. It will not affect my mission if she works as my superior, peer or subordinate — as long as she executes her mission to the best of her ability. I do not believe what we are afraid of is where "these people" will sleep and shower. We are afraid of is how it will make us feel once we know.

Allowing gays to serve openly in the military will raise a bunch of unanswered questions. Such as: Will they be allowed to marry? Will their family and partner’s children be covered under Tricare and other benefits if they can marry? When the current policy is rewritten, these are the issues that will be follow-on effects to discuss.

The perceived series of problems rests more in the minds of those who disagree with that lifestyle, but we aren’t reinventing the wheel here. Many other leading countries allow for homosexuals to serve openly in their militaries. I don’t think it is such a problem that it requires "gay" showers and lodging.

Cpl. Amanda SlugayCamp Arifjan, Kuwait