Chelsea[Bradley] Manning Granted Name Change Request

[mystery-ak]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/23/chelsea-manning-name_n_5199317.html?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016

Chelsea Manning Granted Name Change Request
 AP
Posted: 04/23/2014 12:19 pm EDT Updated: 04/23/2014 12:19 pm EDT



BY JOHN MILBURN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge granted a request Wednesday to formally change the name of the soldier convicted of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks from Bradley Edward Manning to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

The former intelligence analyst is serving a 35-year prison sentence for passing classified U.S. government information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Manning is serving the sentence at the Army prison on Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

Leavenworth County District Judge David King said he'd allow the name change during a court hearing that lasted about a minute. Manning didn't attend the hearing but issued a statement saying it was "an exciting day."

"Hopefully today's name change, while so meaningful to me personally, can also raise awareness of the fact that we (transgender) people exist everywhere in America today, and that we have must jump through hurdles every day just for being who we are," Manning said.

The decision clears the way for official changes to Manning's military records, but it would not compel the military to treat Manning as a woman. That includes transferring Manning to a prison with a woman's unit.

The only impact of the district court ruling was changing Manning's name on military records, but not his confinement status, Army spokesman George Wright said.

"Likewise, the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks is a male-only facility and prisoners there are referred to by the title 'inmate'," Wright said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Manning, who grew up in Oklahoma, filed the court petition as the first step toward getting her Army records changed.

Manning has been diagnosed by at least two Army behavioral health specialists with gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder.

Manning was sentenced in August for six Espionage Act violations and 14 other offenses for leaking more than 700,000 secret military and U.S. State Department documents, along with battlefield video, while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2009 and 2010. An Army general upheld the convictions last week, clearing the way for appeals with the Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

There was no opposition filed to the petition, though Manning included several newspaper reports indicating the desire to live publicly as a woman last August, as well as copy of an Oklahoma birth certificate.

She has filed a grievance with the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks commander at Fort Leavenworth over the lack of a response to her request for comprehensive treatment for her gender identity disorder, including specialized gender counseling and hormone replacement therapy.

The military has said it doesn't provide hormone replacement therapy. Gender dysphoria generally disqualifies one for military service, but Manning can't be discharged while serving the prison sentence.

[Oceander]

eh; aren't there bigger fish to fry?

[jmyrlefuller]

He'll always be a criminal to me.

[mountaineer]

Can't wait till we taxpayers get to pay for his dickectomy.

[Dexter]

eh; aren't there bigger fish to fry?

Yes, mostly elected officials.

[PzLdr]

Can't wait till we taxpayers get to pay for his dickectomy.

Send him to a hot rod body shop. they chop and channel like nobody's business.

[mountaineer]

Leaker Chelsea Manning may get jail transfer for gender treatment
By Associated Press
May 14, 2014 | 5:09am
NY Post

WASHINGTON — In an unprecedented move, the Pentagon is trying to transfer convicted national security leaker Pvt. Chelsea Manning to a civilian prison so she can get treatment for her gender disorder, defense officials said.

Manning, formerly named Bradley, was convicted of sending classified documents to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. The soldier has asked for hormone therapy and to be able to live as a woman.

The request was the first ever made by a transgender military inmate and set up a dilemma for the Defense Department: How to treat a soldier for a diagnosed disorder without violating long-standing military policy. Transgenders are not allowed to serve in the U.S. military and the Defense Department does not provide such treatment, but Manning can’t be discharged from the service while serving his 35-year prison sentence.

Some officials have said privately that keeping the soldier in a military prison and unable to have treatment could amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last month gave the Army approval to try to work out a transfer plan with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which does provide such treatment, two Pentagon officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

“No decision to transfer Pvt. Manning to a civilian detention facility has been made, and any such decision will, of course, properly balance the soldier’s medical needs with our obligation to ensure Pvt. Manning remains behind bars,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

The two agencies are just starting discussions about prospects for a transfer, the two officials said.

The Army has a memorandum of agreement with the Bureau of Prisons for use of several hundred beds and has sent an average of 15 to 20 prisoners a year to civilian prisons. But circumstances are different in Manning’s case. The Army normally transfers some prisoners to federal prisons after all military appeals have been exhausted and discharge from military service has been executed. Cases of national security interest are not normally approved for transfer from military custody to the federal prison system.

The former intelligence analyst was sentenced in August for six Espionage Act violations and 14 other offenses for giving WikiLeaks more than 700,000 secret military and U.S. State Department documents, along with battlefield video, while working in Iraq in 2009 and 2010. An Army general later upheld the convictions, clearing the way for an appeal at the Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

After the conviction, Manning announced the desire to live as a woman and to be called Chelsea, a name change that was approved last month by a Leavenworth County District Judge and that the military did not oppose.

The soldier has been diagnosed by military doctors multiple times — including last fall after arriving at the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, prison — with gender dysphoria, the sense of being a woman in a man’s body.

By November, a military doctor there had approved a treatment plan, including hormone therapy, but it was sent higher up the chain of command for consideration, according to a complaint filed by Manning in March over the delay in getting treatment.

The plan the military was considering has not been publicly released, but Manning said in the complaint that she had specifically asked that the treatment “plan consider … three types of treatment.”

Those were “real life experience” — a regimen in which the person tries dressing and living as the sex they want to transition to (something not possible in the Leavenworth men’s facility); hormone therapy, which changes some physical traits such as breast and hair growth; and sex reassignnment surgery. Manning has not been specific about possible surgery, but experts in transgender health say it can include any of a large number of procedures such as chest reconstruction, genital reconstruction and plastic surgery such as facial reconstruction.

Hagel said Sunday that the prohibition on transgender individuals serving in the armed forces “continually should be reviewed.” He didn’t indicate whether he believes the policy should be overturned but said “every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it.” A transgender individual is someone who has acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or presents himself or herself in a way that does not correspond with that person’s sex at birth.

The treatment this man needs is psychiatric in nature, not hormone therapy. 

[PzLdr]

Leaker Chelsea Manning may get jail transfer for gender treatment
By Associated Press
May 14, 2014 | 5:09am
NY PostThe treatment this man needs is psychiatric in nature, not hormone therapy. 

The treatment Manning needs is a kugel. That's SS slang for a bullet in the back of the head.

[mountaineer]

The treatment Manning needs is a kugel. That's SS slang for a bullet in the back of the head.

Glad you explained that. I would have thought it was some kind of pastry. The bullet makes more sense.

[Bigun]

Leaker Chelsea Manning may get jail transfer for gender treatment
By Associated Press
May 14, 2014 | 5:09am
NY PostThe treatment this man needs is psychiatric in nature, not hormone therapy. 

Man??? Now I'M confused!!!

[flowers]

We have now officially gone beyond the point of no return as a country.