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Growing up in rural Crescent, Oklahoma, Chelsea Manning found an oasis in a favorite room of her family home. "I loved being in my sister's room. I really admired her and wore her clothes to play in, played with her dolls, played with her makeup," she says. "She had a mirror with settings to see what you would look like in different lighting. I thought that was amazing." Back then, Manning was known as a boy named Bradley. Today, Manning is a transgender woman, living in a prison for men.

The Army made her feel “like a joke” — but they couldn’t keep her silent. Chelsea Manning — formerly known as Bradley E. Manning — the ex-Army intelligence analyst sentenced to 35 years for leaking a treasure trove of secret documents to WikiLeaks, has given her first public interview with the press from military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Speaking through the mail to Cosmopolitan magazine, Manning opened up about her recent experience behind bars and her lifelong desire to live as a woman. “I don’t know how [this struggle] shaped my life and who I am, but it’s absolutely...

The U.S. military is now required to refer to former soldier Chelsea Manning with a feminine pronoun or the gender-neutral Private First Class Manning, according to a new court order. Manning, who is serving a 35-year sentence in a Kansas prison for releasing classified documents to WikiLeaks, is undergoing gender reassignment from male to female. She legally shed her masculine name, Bradley, in 2014, but in January the government objected to Manning's decision to adopt female pronouns in filings, saying the 27-year-old was banned from doing so.

WASHINGTON -- An army appeals court has ordered the military to stop its regular practice of referring to Private First Class Chelsea Manning as a man. The military had been asked by Manning and her attorney to cease the habit, but filed an official opposition to that request. The Army Court of Criminal Appeals has now ruled on the matter, ordering that “future formal papers filed before this court and all future orders and decisions issued by this court shall either be neutral, e.g., Private First Class Manning or appellant, or employ a feminine pronoun.”

Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking a trove of secret documents to WikiLeaks, has joined The Guardian newspaper as a contributing opinion writer. Ms. Manning, formerly known as Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, will write on war, gender and freedom of information ...

You may have thought you’d heard the last of Chelsea Manning, given that he’s currently doing the long haul in the Big House, but apparently you’d be wrong. (For the record, we are now referring to the prisoner as “Chelsea” because the guy has done the paperwork and had his name legally changed. This does not, however, mean that I’m obliged to change pronouns.) There is no change in his status as a semi-permanent resident of Fort Leavenworth, but he still wants hormone treatments for gender dysphoria and his legal team is willing to sue Chuck Hagel to get...

The US military has yet to offer Pte First Class Chelsea Manning sex change treatment despite medical recommendations, her lawyer has said. Defence secretary Chuck Hagel approved treatment for a condition known as gender dysphoria in July. But lawyer David Coombs says her requests for hormone therapy and other accommodations have been "ignored". The soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking secret files to Wikileaks. "This time last year I publicly asked that I be provided with a treatment plan, to bring my body more in line with my gender identity," Pte Manning said...

The Bureau of Prisons has rejected the Army’s request to accept the transfer of national security leaker Pvt. Chelsea Manning from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to a civilian facility where she could get better treatment for her gender-identify condition. The military will instead begin the initial treatment for her. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved the Army’s recommendation to keep Manning in military custody and start a rudimentary level of gender treatment, a defense official said Thursday. The initial gender treatments could include allowing Manning to wear some female undergarments and also possibly provide some hormone treatments....

Some of you will have noticed that my observations on the subject of transgenderism/transsexualism have not been met with universal approval, especially among transsexuals. No surprise there. The responses came in predictable forms, mostly juvenile profanity. But there was a bit more. The Telegraph’s Tom Chivers (a guy called Tom?) offered a response under the question-begging headline: “Whether or not Laverne Cox is a woman is not a question of biology; it’s a question of language.” (I assume that Mr. Chivers, like most columnists, does not compose his own headlines, but it is an accurate summation of his argument.) That...

Abuse: The Pentagon tries to transfer convicted national security leaker Bradley Manning to a civilian prison to treat a gender disorder while veterans suffer and die waiting in vain on phony Veterans Administration lists. Or should we say Pvt. Chelsea Manning, the name chosen by the convicted leaker of sensitive classified documents to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Manning has asked for hormone therapy and to be able to live as a woman and the Pentagon is trying to help. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last month gave the Army approval to try to work out a transfer plan with the Federal Bureau...

The Army private who was tried and convicted as Bradley Edward Manning for leaking U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks is petitioning a Kansas court for a name change, to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents. Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in...

June 07, 2010 I SUPPOSE IF I SUGGESTED SUMMARY EXECUTION I WOULD BE CALLED "HARSH"? SNIPPET: "U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe Note that he didn't just lift a video and send it to Wikileaks. He also stole and released 260,000 classified US State Department diplomatic cables."

Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning is seeking a presidential pardon for leaking reams of classified information that her lawyer says did not merit protection. The Pvt. Manning Support Network released documents Wednesday that defense attorney David Coombs filed a day earlier with the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of the Army.

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) – A lawyer for Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning said in a blog post on Thursday the soldier is doing well as she goes through processing at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth. David Coombs wrote that he spoke on Wednesday with Manning, previously known as Bradley Manning, while she goes through the three-to-four-week period known as indoctrination at the Kansas prison. Coombs, who lives in Rhode Island, also said he plans to travel there in the coming weeks to meet with medical staff and the leadership in the quest to allow Manning to receive hormone therapy....

Consider a polarizing political and cultural figure who is seen by many people as a hero and by others as a traitor – and who has a powerful symbolic importance to members of a persecuted minority. This person adopts a new name and a new identity, which transforms his or her relationship to mainstream culture and confuses both the media and many members of the public. Many people refuse to accept the new name and identity, or treat it as a nickname or a passing fad. At age 25, this person is prosecuted for an act of conscience-driven defiance against...

Soon after being sentenced by a military judge to 35 years behind bars for leaking US diplomatic cables and other evidence of war crimes, the person formerly known as Pfc Bradley Manning announced to the world that she - not he - would from now on like to be referred to as, "Chelsea". After being called everything from hero to traitor, Manning announced she wanted to be called something else: a woman. "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," Manning said...

Transgender advocates said it should not be up to the US military to decide if Bradley Manning gets hormone therapy after the jailed US serviceman revealed he wanted a sex change.(VIDEO-AT-LINK) A day after being sentenced for leaking classified material, Bradley Manning revealed that he was hoping to have a sex change. In a written statement read on NBC News's 'Today' programme, Manning said he wants to start hormone therapy as soon as possible and asked supporters to refer to him by his new name, Chelsea, and to use the feminine pronoun. But Manning's demands may set up another legal...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — While making the pitch on his new college affordability plan for a second time, President Obama was interrupted by pro-Bradley Manning hecklers at Henninger High School in Syracuse, N.Y., Thursday evening. Two women holding a giant “Free Bradley Manning” sign yelled at the president in the middle of his speech. It was unclear what the women were saying, but they were escorted out of the gymnasium to applause from the crowd. When the women started shouting, the president said, “I hear you,” and tried to calm down the crowd. After the two women left, Obama called the...

The case of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning tested many complex questions about espionage, journalism and even treason. But there was always one thing that lingered as a subtext to the case: Manning's struggle with gender identity. On Thursday, when Manning announced that he wants to be known as Chelsea Manning, it became clear that the subtext would become the focus and that Manning will now likely test military policy on transgender issues. (NPR, like other news outlets, is at this point continuing to refer to the soldier as "Bradley Manning" on first reference.) Cecilia Chung, a senior strategist for the...