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Chelsea Manning's Idea For Taking On ISIS - Video

Chelsea Manning, the Army private serving 35 years for leaking military and diplomatic secrets to the anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks, filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that the military has failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide treatment for her gender dysphoria.

The term describes a condition in which a persons innate sense of their gender differs from the one he or she was assigned at birth. Manning, who enlisted in the Army as a man, announced last year that she was a transgender woman and would seek treatment for her condition while serving her prison term.

In the suit,Mannings attorneys argue that, despite her repeated requests, the military has failed to provide hormone therapy or permit her to live outwardly as a woman, which amounts to a violation of the Constitutions prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Every day that goes by without appropriate treatment, Plaintiff experiences escalating anxiety, distress, and depression. She feels as though her body is being poisoned by testosterone, wrote the attorneys, including lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union. Plaintiff fears that without appropriate treatment, her anguish will only escalate and she will not be able to survive the 35 years of her sentence, let alone the next few years.

Multiple military doctors have diagnosed Manning with gender dysphoria over the years, but the Army has struggled with how to deal with her and respond to her repeated requests for treatment and accommodations while serving her sentence at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

While federal prisons have systems in place to deal with transgender inmates, military prisons do not, because transgender people are technically barred from serving. The Army has changed its records to reflect Mannings name change, from Bradley to Chelsea, but it still considers Manning a male and has housed her with male inmates.

The Army has said in the pastthat Manning was approved to receive some treatment, and according to the suit, Manning was recently given access to womens undergarments. But Manning has asked to be allowed grow out her hair and use womens cosmetics and grooming products. She has also asked for hormone therapy, including estrogens and anti-androgens. In the suit, she has not asked for surgery.

According to the suit, Manning has contemplated suicide and self-mutilation. An outside expert retained by Manning concluded that she is experiencing significant distress and is at high risk for serious medical consequences, including self-castration and suicide, if such medically necessary treatment is not promptly provided.

The Armydeclined to comment, citing a longstanding policy against commenting on pending litigation.

Sandhya Somashekhar is a health reporter for the Washington Post.

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Chelsea Manning files suit over military’s decision not to provide hormone treatment

'I do not believe I'll be able to survive another year or two ... without treatment,' says the trans military whistleblower, in the wake of the military's continued delays in providing transition-related medical care.

Wikileaks source Chelsea Manning filed a lawsuit in federal court against Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the Pentagon Tuesday, demanding access to hormone therapy more than a year after her first request for such treatment.

The military's ongoing delay in providing such gender-affirming treatment has prompted the rapid deterioration of Manning's mental health, reports theHuffington Post.

Her lawsuit, filed Tuesday,seeks a preliminary injunction that would allow her to begin hormone treatment while the case is litigated, which could possibly last several years. Manning's legal team had previously indicated that they would file a lawsuit on her behalf if the Army continued to drag its feet on providing basic health care to Manning while she is in custody.

"It has now been more than four years since I was first diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition that I have struggled with my entire life," Manning stated in the filing. "I do not believe I will be able to survive another year or two let alone twenty to thirty years without treatment."

Manning is currently serving a 35-year sentencein an all-male facility at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas,for leaking government documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the website WikiLeaks in 2010.

The former Army intelligence officer publiclycame out as transgender last August after she was sentenced. She has since been diagnosed by a number of military doctors with gender dysphoria, an incongruence between one's assigned gender and the one with which they identify. Hormone replacement therapy is one of a number of recommended courses of treatment for gender dysphoria, as outlined by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care, and as supported by the American Medical Association.

In August, it was revealed that despite reports that Sec. Hagel had approved Manning's request to begin hormone therapy, she hadn't received any such treatment. One of Manning's attorneys, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chase Strangio, has been in frequent contact with Manning, and says she has been in "escalating distress" the longer the military has refused her hormone therapy, according to Huff Post.

"She, for a long time, retained the hope that they would do the right thing," Strangio said. "Since then she's been very desperate for relief for a very serious condition which is not being taken seriously."

David Coombs, who represented Manning in her court-martial trial, is reportedly involved in the new federal lawsuit, as well. Coombs had previously indicated the possibility of filing an Eighth Amendment lawsuitif the military continued to deny his client the treatment, which he argues is "cruel and unusual punishment."

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Chelsea Manning Sues Federal Government for Hormone Therapy

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Chelsea Manning has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Defense for blocking her from receiving proper transgender medical treatment.

The suit claims Manning has been denied the hormone treatment and other personal care standards to complete her gender transition at Leavenworth prison.

"She brings this action to compel defendants [Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the federal government] to treat her serious medical needs consistent with their obligation under the Constitution," said the suit.

Her representation from the ACLU claim if the requests are denied, she "will suffer continued pain, depression and anxiety and is at an extremely high risk of self-castration and suicidality."

Along with the hormone treatments, Manning is requesting she be allowed to follow grooming standards like being allowed to grow her hair and wear cosmetics, "in order to express her female gender."

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

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after leaking classified documents about events during the war in Iraq.

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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Chelsea Manning sues Defense Department to receive transgender hormone therapy

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of US Army Private Chelsea Manning. The lawsuit asks for treatment for Manning's gender dysphoria, which she was diagnosed with in 2010 while she was stationed in Iraq.

Manning was court-martialed last year for handing a cache of classified documents over to Wikileaks, which most famously resulted in the notorious Collateral Murder video. She was convicted in July 2013 of espionage, theft, and computer fraud, but she was acquitted of aiding the enemy, which was one of the most serious charges. Manning is currently serving 35 years in prison and resides at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

Manning and her lawyers have repeatedly tried to secure treatment for Manning's condition. In May of this year, it seemed as if the Pentagon would allow a transfer of Manning from a military to a civilian prison so that she could get treatment, which includes hormone therapy, permission to follow female grooming standards, and access to a doctor trained to deal with her condition, according to the Los Angeles Times. In July, the Army's request to transfer Manning to the Federal Bureau of Prisons was rejected. At the same time, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved an Army recommendation to initiate a 'rudimentary level of gender treatment,' Manning's complaint reads.

Manning's complaint asks that the United States District Court of the District of Columbia rule that refusing to treat Manning's gender dysphoria violates the Eighth Amendment, order that Manning receive treatment, and cover her attorney's fees, as well as any "other relief thattheCourt deems just and proper."

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Chelsea Manning sues federal government for gender dysphoria treatment