The very nature of Serving in Unsilence presents some risks to you and your career, should you choose to use us as your blog host. The two biggest risks (which are self-evident) are:

• if exposed, you could be involuntarily separated from the Service
• if exposed, you could face anti-gay bias or come under physical harm

Serving in Unsilence will never divulge personally-identifying information about you to third parties without a court-order, but we can not prevent you from inadvertently doing exactly that. What follows, is some advice from Sharra Greer from SLDN, which can also be found at this url: http://www.sldn.org/templates/legalhelp/record.html?section=178&record=3526. I’ve made modifications to this advice as needed to make the advice apply to Serving in Unsilence (apologies to SLDN).

None of the bullets below should be considered part of the Terms of Service — you will not lose your account on the site for not following this advice. You might lose your career, but not your account. On a serious note though, this is important stuff, and you should definitely heed the advice. Enjoy using your blog and the site, but do so in a careful and deliberate manner.

Advice for our members in the military from SLDN:

Under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” stating that you are lesbian, gay or bisexual to anyone, at any time, can lead to your discharge — including statements made in online ads, profiles and chat rooms. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has seen multiple cases of service members whose careers were threatened or ended because of an online statement. The safest course of action is not to state that you are lesbian, gay or bisexual anywhere, including on the Web. If you choose to do so, some basic guidelines can help you decrease your chances of facing investigation and/or discharge:

• DO use a pseudonym or screen name to avoid disclosing your identity.
• DO indicate your geographic location by the name of your town or zip code, not by the name of your base.
• DO use a personal e-mail address to register and receive mail; do not use a military e-mail address.
• DO access Serving in Unsilence through a personal computer, but not during duty hours.
• DO erase your cookies and history on any computer other military personnel may have access to.
• DO NOT access Serving in Unsilence through a military computer at any time.
• DO NOT state that you are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender or that you are looking for a relationship or sex with someone of the same gender.
• DO NOT indicate your branch of the armed services in your personal profile, screen name (example: SDnavyGuy78), in chat rooms or other online forums.
• DO NOT provide information or descriptions that may reveal your identity, including public photographs that display your face or a unique tattoo.
• DO NOT post a picture of yourself in uniform, even if you do not show your face.
• DO NOT tell friends or colleagues in the military that you have a profile on a Web site serving the LGBT community.
• DO NOT submit your profile to be a “featured member.”

Most service members who run into trouble with the military because of their sexual orientation are reported to their commands by people they know. If you are lesbian, gay or bisexual and have chosen to pursue a career in the military under DADT, you must be extremely careful about revealing your sexual orientation to anyone, regardless of whether that person is in the military or a friend from the civilian or online world.

If you are investigated for alleged violations of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” remember your Article 31 rights to say nothing, sign nothing and ask for legal assistance.

If you have questions about “don’t ask, don’t tell,” you can contact SLDN at (202) 328-3244 or visit them at www.sldn.org for free, confidential legal advice.