The military is still discharging servicemembers under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ who are outed through Internet profiles, according to a Gay.com/PlanetOut.com report.
Since the beginning of the year, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) has helped 10 service members facing discharge for online profiles. According to an organizational press release, the online outing cases represent a quarter of the organization’s total disclosures so far in 2005. SLDN first reported in May of last year that servicemembers were being targeted for online profiles. The 10 recent cases include a Farsi linguist, an intelligence analyst and a communications officer. Three of the 10 have served in Iraq or Afghanistan.
SLDN has partnered with Gay.com and online community Connexion.org to release guidelines. For example, they should not access such sites using a military computer, post photos in online profiles, or use terminology or information that may reveal that they are affiliated with the military. Precautions are listed at www.sldn.org as well as the Gay.com, PlanetOut.com and Connexion.org Web sites.