Chelsea Manning Gives First TV Interview Post-Prison Release – SouthFloridaGayNews.com

(WB) Chelsea Manning gave her first TV interview since being released from prison last month to ABCs Nightline.

Excerpts of the interview with Nightline co-anchor JuJu Chang, which touched on Mannings reasoning behind leaking military documents, aired on Good Morning America on Friday.

Manning, 29, served seven years ofa 35-year prison sentence for releasing documents to Wikileaks. She explained that while reviewingmilitary documents as an army private she became unable to separate the facts from the people it was affecting.

Were getting all this information from all these different sources and its just death, destruction, mayhem, Manning says.Were filtering it all through facts, statistics, reports, dates, times, locations, and eventually, you just stop. I stopped seeing just statistics and information, and I started seeing people.

She acknowledged that she takes full responsibility for choosing to leak the documents to the public.

Anything Ive done, its me. Theres no one else. No one told me to do this. Nobody directed me to do this. This is me. Its on me, Manning says.

Manning detailed her feelingscoming out as transgenderright after her sentencing. She says her fight for hormonetreatmentwas a matter of life or death.

Its literally what keeps me alive, Manning says.It keeps me from feeling like Im in the wrong body. I used to get these horrible feeling like I just wanted to rip my body apart and I dont want to have to go through that experience again. Its really, really awful.

The former Army intelligence analyst says she hasnot spoken to Barack Obama since he commuted her sentenceas one of his final actsas president. However, she hopes tothank himone day.

I was given a chance, thats all I wanted, Manning says. Thats all I asked for was a chance, thats it.

The full interview airs early next week.

Mariah Cooper, Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.

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Chelsea Manning Gives First TV Interview Post-Prison Release - SouthFloridaGayNews.com