Bradley Manning Reveals He's a Woman Named Chelsea Manning

Shaking my head.

The military -- I don't jump at the chance of faulting the military, but, like any operation, it's filled with incompetence -- decided this guy was a Solid Citizen posing little-to-no security risk and could and should be trusted with our top secret military and diplomatic communications.

So this is Chelsea, lately.

One day after being sentenced to 35 years in prison for the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history, the Army private the world knows as Bradley Manning issued a statement about who she really is. "As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female," Manning wrote in a statement read on the Today show. "Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition. I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility)."

The letter is signed Chelsea E. Manning, and thanks supporters for raising awareness of her case.

Manning is likely to serve her time at Fort Leavenworth, which doesn't offer hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery to prisoners, as reported by Courthouse News. David Coombs, Manning's lawyer, was not sure if Fort Leavenworth would offer Manning hormone therapy, though he said on Today that he was "hoping" the prison "would do the right thing."

"If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure they are forced to do so," Coombs said, according to the Today website. It's not clear whether Manning will be imprisoned in the male or female population. In U.S. prisons in general, transgender inmates are typically classified by their officially assigned gender, rather than the gender with which they identify.

Below, a picture that's either of Chelsea Manning or Claire Danes in the upcoming season of Homeland.

[Update - Andy] Via @CuffyMeh

posted by Ace at 11:56 AM

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