Bradley Manning, the US soldier convicted of leaking a trove of secret documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, will now be legally known as Chelsea Manning, a judge has ruled.

Manning is serving a 35-year prison sentence at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and had requested the name change after court-martial proceedings revealed the soldier's emotional turmoil over sexual identity.

Leavenworth County District Judge David King granted the request to allow Manning "to legally change her name from 'Bradley Edward Manning' to 'Chelsea Elizabeth Manning'", said a statement issued by supporters.

In the same statement, Manning praised the result.

"It's worth noting that in both mail and in-person, I've often been asked, 'Why are you changing your name?'

"The answer couldn't be simpler: because it's a far better, richer, and more honest reflection of who I am and always have been - a woman named Chelsea," Manning said.

"Hopefully today's name change, while so meaningful to me personally, can also raise awareness of the fact that we ... (transgender) people exist everywhere in America today, and that we must jump through hurdles every day just for being who we are," he said.

Manning has asked authorities for medical treatment, including hormonal replacement therapy, for her gender identity disorder. But the military maintains it does not provide for such treatment.

Manning was convicted in August 2013 on espionage charges and other offences for passing along 700,000 secret documents, including diplomatic cables and military intelligence files, to WikiLeaks in the largest-scale leak in US history.

A US Army general denied clemency to Manning last week, upholding the 35-year sentence.

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WikiLeaks source changes name to female

U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted by military police as he arrives for his sentencing at a military court facility Aug. 21, 2013, in Fort Meade, Md. A judge granted a request April 23, 2014, for Manning to change her name from Bradley Edward to Chelsea Elizabeth. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- A Kansas judge granted a request Wednesday to formally change the name of the soldier convicted of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks from Bradley Edward Manning to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

The former intelligence analyst is serving a 35-year prison sentence for passing classified U.S. government information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Manning is serving the sentence at the Army prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

During a hearing that lasted about a minute, Leavenworth County District Judge David King said he'd allow the name change.

The decision clears the way for official changes to Manning's military records, but it would not compel the military to treat Manning as a woman. That includes transferring Manning to a prison with a woman's unit.

Sgt. Bradley Manning, dressed as a woman; on April. 23, 2014 a judge approved his name change to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

"Likewise, the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks is a male-only facility and prisoners there are referred to by the title 'inmate,'" Wright said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Manning, who grew up in Oklahoma, filed the court petition as the first step toward getting her Army records changed.

Manning has been diagnosed by at least two Army behavioral health specialists with gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder.

Manning was sentenced in August for six Espionage Act violations and 14 other offenses for leaking more than 700,000 secret military and U.S. State Department documents, along with battlefield video, while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2009 and 2010. An Army general upheld the convictions last week, clearing the way for appeals with the Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

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Judge decides whether WikiLeaks leaker can be called Chelsea

Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley, is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., after the third day of her court martial on June 5, 2013.

Image: Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai2014-04-23 17:04:41 UTC

A judge has granted a request from WikiLeaks' most famous informant, the soldier formerly known as Bradley Edward Manning, to have her name formally changed to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.

The Leavenworth County District Judge David King allowed the name change in a one-minute long hearing, according to the Associated Press. Manning will now officially be known as Chelsea.

Manning formally requested her name to be changed last month, but she announced that she is female and wanted to be known as Chelsea last year, after being sentenced to spend 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret documents to WikiLeaks.

"Today is an exciting day," Manning wrote in an open letter published on the Chelsea Manning Support Network website. "Ive been working for months for this change, and waiting for years."

Manning added that she requested a name change "because its a far better, richer, and more honest reflection of who I am and always have been a woman named Chelsea."

The ruling is the first step toward a change in Manning's military records. But it won't change her confinement status, meaning she will remain in her current male-only prison facility and won't be transferred to a prison with a women's unit, according to the AP.

Manning also requested hormone therapy, and to live as a woman during her time in prison, and she has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder. But the U.S. military prisons have no legal obligation to provide hormone therapy.

Link:
WikiLeaks Informant Manning Is Now Officially Chelsea