In an announcement sent to TODAY this morning, the WikiLeaks whistleblower recently sentenced to 35 years in prison Bradley Manning stated her desire to live as a woman, be further addressed as Chelsea Manning, and to undergo hormone therapy for gender reassignment.
Even before her leak of cables to the whistleblower site WikiLeaks, Manning had expressed her desire to live her life as a woman and potentially undergo gender reassignment surgery. Manning’s arrest in May 2010, which lead to a pre-trial detention of almost three years, overshadowed this. The cables, documents, photographs and video that Manning released drew international attention, and her recent guilty verdict (she plead guilty to a number of charges, as well) has also sparked international debate.
Manning’s announcement comes immediately in the wake of her sentencing to 35 years in a military prison under the Espionage Act, though it is possible that she will not serve that full sentence having the possibility of parole. In the United States, transgender people who have not yet undergone gender reassignment surgery are usually held with their birth-sex peers. However, the policy for military detention is unclear.
That Manning identifies as a woman has been no secret, though this has been thoroughly overshadowed by the debate surrounding her leak and there revelations therefrom. However, this morning’s announcement was the first official public statement from Manning declaring her new first name, Chelsea, and a definitive desire to be addressed using female pronouns. It remains unclear whether the Military will provide Manning with hormone therapy, and whether gender reassignment surgery will be available to her during her potentially lengthy prison term.