Testing for AIDS

Re “Judge, Citing AIDS, Backs Military Homosexual Ban,” Dec. 10:

It is nothing short of a pathetically veiled attempt to perpetuate discrimination by using this tragic disease to define the homosexual population. How distressing that a federal judge reverts to a categorical generalization of gays, especially at a time when AIDS has become a nationally legitimized concern by virtue of its presence among the straight community. I suppose, analogously, it would have been equally responsible to label all heterosexuals as herpes-bearers in the mid-1980s.

As long as Judge Oliver Gasch insists upon adhering to stereotypes, it is surprising that he fails to see how counterproductive it would be to eliminate gays from the military. After all, who’s going to cut the soldiers’ hair, mend their uniforms, cater their social functions, or design the interiors of their barracks?

BRENT SVERDLOFF

Santa Monica