From Truth Out: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18348-chelsea-manning-reveals-gender-identity-army-unlikely-to-grant-hormone-therapy-request
By Martha Sorren
Thursday, 22 August 2013
Private Chelsea Manning (tried and sentenced by the US military as Bradley Manning) has released a statement via her lawyer announcing that she wants to live as a woman and begin hormone therapy as soon as possible.
“I am Chelsea Manning. I am female. 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,” she said in the statement.
She also requested that she be referred to by her new name of Chelsea and that the feminine pronoun be used. Truthout will do so in all future reporting and commentary.
During Manning’s trial, her gender dysphoria was revealed. An email Manning sent to her supervisor, titled “My Problem,” included a photo of Manning in a long blonde wig, wearing lipstick.
She wrote, “This is my problem. I’ve had signs of it for a very long time. It’s caused problems within my family. I thought a career in the military would get rid of it. It’s not something I seek out for attention, and I’ve been trying very, very hard to get rid of it by placing myself in situations where it would be impossible. But, it’s not going away; it’s haunting me more and more as I get older. Now, the consequences of it are dire, at a time when it’s causing me great pain in itself. I don’t know what to do anymore, and the only “help” that seems available is severe punishment and/or getting rid of me.”
Manning’s lawyers claimed that the lack of available help and the struggle in what her former Army counselor, Captain Michael Worsley called “a hyper-masculine environment,” played a large role in Manning’s worsening mental state.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on August 21, and it seems unlikely that the prison will comply with Manning’s wishes to start hormone therapy right away.
Kimberly Lewis, a spokeswoman for the prison, said, “The Army does not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery for gender-identity disorder.”
Continue reading at: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18348-chelsea-manning-reveals-gender-identity-army-unlikely-to-grant-hormone-therapy-request
