Army leaker asks to live as a woman
U.S. military says it does not offer hormone therapy
FORT MEADE, Md. Bradley Manning plans to live as a woman named Chelsea and wants to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible, the U.S. soldier said Thursday, a day after being sentenced to 35 years in prison for the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history.
Manning announced the decision in a written statement provided to NBC, asking supporters to refer to him by the new name and the feminine pronoun. The statement was signed “Chelsea E. Manning.”
“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. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible,” the statement read.
Manning’s defence attorney David Coombs told NBC he is hoping officials at the military prison will accommodate Manning’s request for hormone therapy. If not, “I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure they are forced to do so,” Coombs said.
The U.S. army said it doesn’t provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery.
“All inmates are considered soldiers and are treated as such with access to mental health professionals, including a psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers and behavioural science non-commissioned officers,” army spokesman George Wright said.
Manning was returned Thursday to an all-male prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to begin serving the sentence, the army said.
Prison spokesman George Marcec said there had never been a case similar to Manning’s, and the soldier would need to petition for a transfer to a federal prison to receive hormone treatment.
He said Manning would not be allowed to wear a wig or bra, and that Manning’s hair would have to be kept to military standard. The staff has some leeway to separate soldiers from the other inmates based on the risk to themselves and others, Marcec said.
Coombs did not respond to phone and email messages from The Associated Press on Thursday.
Manning has been called both a whistleblower and a traitor for giving more than 700,000 classified military and diplomatic documents, plus battlefield footage, to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in an attempt to expose what the soldier called “blood lust” and inspire public debate on U.S. policies.
The soldier faces the stiffest punishment ever handed out in the U.S. for leaking information to the media. With good behaviour and credit for the more than three years the soldier has been held, Manning could be out in as little as seven years, Coombs said.
Manning’s struggle with gender identity disorder — the sense of being a woman trapped in a man’s body — was key to the soldier’s defence. Attorneys had presented evidence of Manning’s struggle with gender identity, including a photo of the soldier in a blond wig and lipstick sent to a therapist.
A defence witness said Manning emailed him the photo with a letter titled “My problem.”
“I don’t know what to do anymore, and the only ‘ help’ that seems to be available is severe punishment and/or getting rid of me,” the email said.