Chelsea Manning, US Military and Gender Identity: Wikileaks Private Gets Sex Change Therapy in Prison, Discharge Only After 35-Year Sentence
The U.S. Military will begin the treatment for Chelsea Manning's gender identity condition after the transfer of the national security leaker from a military prison was not approved by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, The Guardian reports.
Private Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley, will be serving a sentence of 35 years after leaking classified documents to Wikileaks. After she was convicted with 20 charges for being connected with the military and diplomatic documents leaks in July last year, Manning requested to be provided with gender treatment, including hormone therapy, and be allowed to continue living her life as a woman.
Military doctors diagnosed Manning with gender dysphoria, the condition where one's gender is confused with the sex one is born with. Her lawyer then threatened to sue the Army last May in case they refused to give Manning the therapy for sex change in the military prison.
It was further argued that the treatment was an obligation for the military to fulfill and that the civilian prison would not be safe for Manning if they should transfer her there. Nancy Hollander, however, said that Manning has not suffered any form of harassment at the Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas. This is considering that her inmates were aware of her condition and that she was a transgender, BBC reported.
The petition was granted by a judge in April for her name to be legally changed from Bradley to Chelsea. Her treatment plan was also approved by Fort Leavenworth's military doctor. While the U.S. military is obliged to provide medical treatments and procedures to its soldiers, the policy set by the Pentagon is that transgender people are strictly prohibited from serving in the military openly. Nonetheless, Manning will not be discharged until her prison term has finished.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel opined that the policy against transgender people should be "continuously reviewed," believing that it should be overturned. A previous study conducted by the Palm Center noted that the U.S. military has 15,000 transgender members and 130,000 veterans who are transgender as well.
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