Under Pentagon approval, national security WikiLeaker Chelsea Manning is set to start undergoing sex change treatments in military prison and won't be transferred to a civilian prison, officials said. <\/p>\n
The transgender ex-intelligence analyst will begin receiving early-stage gender reassignment treatments at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where she's serving 35 years for leaking a trove of sensitive state secrets to the whistleblower site in 2010 and 2011. <\/p>\n
The decision comes as federal prison officials said they were rejecting the U.S. Army's bid to move Manning to a civilian jail, where she would reportedly get better treatment for gender dysphoria. <\/p>\n
The condition makes her feel as though she's a woman trapped in a man's body, she's said. <\/p>\n
The treatments were likely to include psychological counseling and a loosening of jail regulations that would allow her to wear women's underwear. <\/p>\n
Hormone treatments were also on the table something Manning has asked for since announcing after her 2013 conviction that she wanted to live as a woman and be called Chelsea, not Bradley. <\/p>\n
Leavenworth is an all-male prison. <\/p>\n
The decision to treat the 26-year-old disgraced soldier, approved by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, raised questions about whether she would eventually be moved to a women's jail. <\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the Army began working on a proposal to transfer Manning to a facility run by the Bureau of Prisons, which provides gender reassignment treatments. Army prisons don't offer such therapies. <\/p>\n
Manning's request for the treatments was the first ever by a military inmate. <\/p>\n
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