Chelsea Manning didn’t deserve those Pride cheers – New York Post

Chelsea Manning got a lively welcome at Sundays LGBTQ Pride event, marking the second time in a month that a New York parade featured cheering for someone whod committed major crimes against the United States.

Like unrepentant terrorist Oscar Lpez Rivera, Manning won clemency from President Barack Obama on his way out of office, in her case release after seven years of a 35-year sentence for violating the Espionage Act.

Unlike OLR, her presence in a city parade came as a late surprise. Plus, she was a featured guest of the ACLU; the parade committee never planned to honor her.

So its understandable that the crowd focused on her as just a famous trans person, in many eyes a martyr not as a traitor.

But the fact remains that Pfc. Bradley Manning in 2009-10 pulled off the then-largest-ever theft of US classified information, sending three-quarters of a million documents to WikiLeaks.

In the civil liberties and anti-war world, he/she won praise as a whistleblower. On the national security side, the leaks cost America prestige and, worse, lives.

Having made such a stink over Lpez Rivera, we think itd be rank discrimination if we didnt note for the record that, in our eyes, Manning is still a traitor who shouldnt be honored in any parade.

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Chelsea Manning didn't deserve those Pride cheers - New York Post