Chelsea Manning got a lively welcome at Sundays LGBTQ Pride event, marking the second time in a month that a New York parade featured cheering for someone whod committed major crimes against the United States. <\/p>\n
Like unrepentant terrorist Oscar Lpez Rivera, Manning won clemency from President Barack Obama on his way out of office, in her case release after seven years of a 35-year sentence for violating the Espionage Act. <\/p>\n
Unlike OLR, her presence in a city parade came as a late surprise. Plus, she was a featured guest of the ACLU; the parade committee never planned to honor her. <\/p>\n
So its understandable that the crowd focused on her as just a famous trans person, in many eyes a martyr not as a traitor. <\/p>\n
But the fact remains that Pfc. Bradley Manning in 2009-10 pulled off the then-largest-ever theft of US classified information, sending three-quarters of a million documents to WikiLeaks. <\/p>\n
In the civil liberties and anti-war world, he\/she won praise as a whistleblower. On the national security side, the leaks cost America prestige and, worse, lives. <\/p>\n
Having made such a stink over Lpez Rivera, we think itd be rank discrimination if we didnt note for the record that, in our eyes, Manning is still a traitor who shouldnt be honored in any parade. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n