Chelsea Manning Formally Requests Name Change

Chelsea Manning is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., on Aug. 21, 2013, before a sentencing hearing in her court martial.

Image: Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai2014-03-20 14:11:35 UTC

WikiLeaks' most famous whistleblower, the army private formerly known as Bradley Manning, has taken the first step toward officially becoming recognized as a female.

Manning requested a Kansas court to change her name to Chelsea and will also request hormone therapy, the Pvt. Manning Support Network announced on Wednesday.

After she was sentenced to 35 years in prison in August 2013 for leaking hundreds of thousands of secrets to WikiLeaks, Manning announced that she was female and wanted to henceforth be known as Chelsea. Manning's leaks to Julian Assange's organization include the Iraq and Afghanistan War logs, the Collateral Murder video, and the trove of diplomatic cables popularly knows as "Cablegate."

That announcement was "the result a long process of personal introspection and discovery," the Pvt. Manning Support Network said. Manning has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder, by two U.S. Army behavioral health specialists, according to the Associated Press.

Manning has asked to live as a woman during her incarceration, but it's still unclear whether the Army will allow that. Unlike federal civilian prisons, U.S. military prisons are not legally required to provide hormone therapy when medically necessary. The Pentagon doesn't allow transgender soldiers to serve and prisoners are considered soldiers until released from prison.

The matter will probably have to be solved in court; there is no precedent for Manning's case, so it will be up for a judge to decide. Manning requested the name change to Kansas' Leavenworth County District Court through her lawyer, David E. Coombs, on Jan. 27. The court has scheduled a hearing on April 23 to consider the matter.

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Chelsea Manning Formally Requests Name Change