Actor and model Reichen Lehmkuhl says he and boyfriend Lance Bass “have to be very protective” because of threats sparked by his new memoir about the problems of being gay while serving in the military. 

“I am not going to hide,” the 32-year-old former Air Force captain and winner of season four of CBS’s Amazing Race told TV’s Inside Edition in an interview that aired Wednesday. “There are threats that come in from people who do not want me to be so public and expose what is going on in the military.”

Lehmkuhl says that he and Bass, the former ‘N Sync star who revealed he is gay in July, turn the threats over to private security staffers, who forward what appear to be the more serious ones to the FBI. “Everything is being covered so we feel safe,” he said.

In his book, Here’s What We’ll Say: Growing Up, Coming Out, and the U.S. Air Force Academy, Lehmkuhl recounts his experience of being closeted in the military.

But he told ABC News earlier this week that his colleagues speculated about his sexuality, and assaulted him one night to send him a message.

“That’s when you start having suicidal thoughts,” he said, “and that’s when you start saying, ‘Oh my God. I am so stuck in this situation. I can’t go to anyone.’ “