National security leaker Chelsea Manning can get initial treatment for a gender-identity condition from the military after the Bureau of Prisons rejected the Army's request to accept her transfer from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to a civilian facility. <\/p>\n
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved the Army's recommendation to keep the Army private in military custody and start a rudimentary level of gender treatment, a defence official said Thursday. <\/p>\n
Defence officials have said the Army doesn't have the medical expertise needed to give Manning the best treatment. <\/p>\n
The initial gender treatments provided by the military could include allowing Manning to wear some female undergarments and also possibly provide some hormone treatments. <\/p>\n
The decision raises a number of questions about what level of treatment Manning will be able to get and at what point she would have to be transferred from the all-male prison to a female facility. <\/p>\n
In May, Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, had contended that civilian prisons were not as safe as military facilities. <\/p>\n
In a statement, he had said, ''It is common knowledge that the federal prison system cannot guarantee the safety and security of Chelsea in the way that the military prison system can.'' <\/p>\n
Coombs told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was encouraged that the Army will begin medical treatment. <\/p>\n
''It has been almost a year since we first filed our request for adequate medical care,'' Coombs said. <\/p>\n
''I am hopeful that when the Army says it will start a 'rudimentary level' of treatment that this means hormone replacement therapy.'' <\/p>\n
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