BECOMING CHELSEA | Manning recounts struggle with gender identity, decries treatment in jail

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

WASHINGTON -- Chelsea Manning, the US soldier imprisoned for spilling state secrets, has said in an interview that much of her life has been marked by a lonely anguish over her gender identity.

In her first interview from Fort Leavenworth military prison where she is serving out a 35-year sentence for a massive leak of classified documents, Manning, 27, described her life behind bars in an article published Wednesday in Cosmopolitan magazine.

She said she is pained by rules that still forbid her from growing her hair long.

After Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, was convicted and sentenced in 2013 for the massive document dump, the US Army private announced she was a female and requested medical treatment -- including hormone therapy -- to enable her to become a woman.

Manning has won partial legal victories and judges have backed her request to be referred to as a woman. But while she is undergoing hormone therapy and allowed make-up and female underwear, authorities do not permit Manning to grow her hair long.

Her appeals for medical care have been difficult because she feels "like a joke" to military officials, Manning told the magazine.

It is "painful and awkward" to be banned from letting her hair grow, Manning said.

"I am torn up," Manning said. "I get through each day OK, but at night, when I'm alone in my room, I finally burn out and crash."

The magazine interview was conducted by mail, as military authorities prohibit inmates from speaking to journalists by phone or in person.

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BECOMING CHELSEA | Manning recounts struggle with gender identity, decries treatment in jail