In our second set of correspondence, Tarak Barkawi and Christopher Dandeker, followed by Melissa Wells-Petry, offer counterarguments to Elizabeth Kier's call for the open integration of gays and lesbians in the U.S. military. Kier replies.

The author ocuses on the opponents of open integration, who charge that permitting homosexuals to serve openly would harm military effectiveness by hindering the development of “primary unit cohesion,” which they contend is a key ingredient to performance. She challenges this assumption head-on and explains why permitting gays and lesbians to serve openly would actually enhance military performance.