Dear Sir,

You must know that the military's and all other institutional intolerance for and hazing and bashing and bullying of perceived and self-identified homosexual and transgender persons is in no small part responsible for the broader social antagonism in this country which itself has cost the lives of so many young individuals in recent weeks, and countless others in my lifetime alone - a few of whom were known to me personally.

In light of this I beg you to make a swift and definitive end to "Don't ask, don't tell", and a major public policy address condemning all discrimination - discrimination which has been transferred from one minority to the next throughout our history, and which I feel you yourself must know all too well.