From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victoria-a-brownworth/the-politics-of-private-m_b_3823864.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices
Victoria A. Brownworth
08/28/2013
I’ve written a lot about Bradley, now Chelsea, Manning over the past three-plus years since Manning’s arrest in May 2010. Straight new reports, opinion pieces, discursive mixes of the two. Manning arrested, Manning transported to U.S., Manning kept in solitary confinement, Manning awaiting charges and on and on.
These pieces have appeared in various publications, but I’ve reported on Manning for The Advocate throughout that period, most recently the day after the sentencing.
Glenn Greenwald at the Guardian, Alexis O’Brien at The Daily Beast and Kevin Gosztola at FireDogLake have followed and supported my writing on Manning, as I have theirs. I note this because they are three journalists whose writing about Manning has been most thorough. Greenwald, who broke the Edward Snowden story, brought Manning’s story to mainstream journalism. Gosztola and O’Brien reported on every aspect of the trial. But they’ve reported for the straight media; I’ve reported on Manning for the LGBT media.
I won’t — I can’t — pretend dispassion about Manning, nor a lack of bias. To me Manning was and is heroic. Every piece I’ve ever written about Manning has stipulated to that, either overtly or subtextually. What we learned as a nation because of the documents revealed by Manning meant we could no longer pretend America was innocent of aggression nor innocent of killing innocents. And as Daniel Ellsberg, who was himself arrested on the same charges as Manning in 1971, told me for a piece I did in February during Manning’s preliminary hearing, those revelations helped end the Iraq War, saving countless lives.
The three years since Manning’s arrest have been a shadow time, however, for this story. Manning rarely made the mainstream news. Even when the trial finally started after three years of detention, a trial that lasted two months followed by a sentencing hearing that lasted three weeks, most of the mainstream news media only covered the first day of trial and the verdict, a few high points and the sentencing itself.
But some of us were there throughout, doggedly reporting on each nuance, each new twist or turn. The long period with no charges, then the ridiculous overload of charges. A push to try Manning for treason. Hints at the death penalty. The preliminary hearing nearly three years after the arrest.
I wrote about the torture of Manning, the violations of the Geneva Convention, the way Manning was kept naked in a cell constantly lit, the morning searches (what can be hidden in a naked body?), the refusal to give Manning a pillow or a blanket for fear of… what? I wrote about how Manning had become less voluble as the solitary confinement began to do what it does to everyone-take its toll, make them a little crazy. I wrote about how, when asked at a press conference about Manning’s treatment, President Obama said he’d been told by the Pentagon that everything was fine, and that was enough for him.
Continue reading at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victoria-a-brownworth/the-politics-of-private-m_b_3823864.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices
See also:
Huffington Post: Referring to Bradley Manning as He or She Is Not the Issue
LGBTQ Nation: CNN has no excuse for continuing to call Chelsea Manning a man
Fire Dog Lake: Thoughts On Chelsea Manning’s Coming Out
Towleroad: Transgender Former Navy SEAL Kristin Beck Blasts Chelsea Manning: ‘a Traitor to Me Personally’
Socialist Worker: Free Chelsea Manning now
