An image of Manning sent in a April 24, 2010, email coming out to her supervisor (Photo: Chelsea Manning, via U.S. Army file).
Transgender soldier and inmate at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks Chelsea Manning announced late Tuesday night that she had ended a five-day hunger strike after receiving assurances from the U.S. Army that she will be able to receive the recommended treatment for gender dysphoria. That treatment will involve gender confirmation surgery, which was recommended by her psychologist in April.
Since first being taken into custody in 2010, Manning says she has been subjected to long stretches in solitary confinement during her court martial and has been denied medical treatment for gender dysphoria. After suing to receive that treatment, the Army allowed her to receive hormone therapy. But it denied her the ability to get confirmation surgery or to grow her hair longer than the prescribed length for male prisoners at the all-male Disciplinary Barracks. Those denials led Manning to launch the hunger strike, even though she noted there was a possibility she could become incapacitated or die as a result.
“I am unendingly relieved that the military is finally doing the right thing,” Manning said in a statement. “I applaud them for that. This is all that I wanted — for them to let me be me. But it is hard not to wonder why it has taken so long. Also, why were such drastic measures needed? The surgery was recommended in April 2016. The recommendations for my hair length were back in 2014. In any case, I hope this sets a precedent for the thousands of trans people behind me hoping they will be given the treatment they need.”
Manning’s lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, Chase Strangio, released his own statement celebrating the decision to permit his client to receive gender confirmation surgery.
“This is a monumental day for Chelsea, who can now enjoy some peace knowing that critically needed medical care is forthcoming,” Strangio said. “This medical care is absolutely vital for Chelsea as it is for so many transgender people — in and out of prison — who are systemically denied treatment solely because they are transgender. Thankfully the government has recognized its constitutional obligation to provide Chelsea with the medical care that she needs and we hope that they will act without delay to ensure that her suffering does not needlessly continue.”
But Strangio also noted that the government has not acquiesced on the issue of hair length. For many transgender people, part of their treatment for gender dysphoria involves accepting their identity by altering their physical appearance or adopting grooming standards to better reflect their gender identity. He also criticized the government for subjecting Manning to a disciplinary board hearing stemming from a suicide attempt in July, which Strangio argues was caused by the previous denial of treatment.
“Given the recognition of Chelsea’s health care needs, we hope that she is immediately permitted to grow her hair consistent with the standard for female military prisoners and that all charges related to her suicide attempt and the investigation that followed are dropped,” he said.
Manning is currently serving a 35-year prison sentence at the Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for releasing more than 700,000 government files containing sensitive information to the online government watchdog site Wikileaks. Manning’s leak of classified document is still considered one of the largest such leaks in American history. She has tried to appeal her conviction, arguing that she was acting as a “whistleblower” in bringing the information to the public’s attention.Â
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has begun enforcing a new rule requiring airlines to ignore any "X" gender markers on passports and instead enter either "M" or "F" for all passengers.
Announced in a July 7 bulletin, CBP said the rule stems from an earlier executive order by former President Donald Trump aimed at eliminating recognition of transgender identities. The directive took effect on July 14, with airlines given 90 days to comply before full enforcement.
Now in effect, the rule has sparked widespread concern over how it will be implemented in practice.
A new survey finds that many LGBTQ Americans -- especially transgender and nonbinary people -- have altered their lives in response to a wave of anti-LGBTQ laws and rhetoric sweeping the country, with many reporting serious harm to their mental health and overall wellbeing.
Conducted from May 29 to June 13 by NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel for the Movement Advancement Project, the online survey polled 1,055 LGBTQ adults nationwide, including 111 who identified as transgender or nonbinary.
Operated by NORC at the University of Chicago, AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel designed to reflect the U.S. household population. Randomly selected households are contacted through mail, email, phone, or in-person interviews.
Reports that the person who fatally shot conservative activist Charlie Kirk had left behind bullet casings engraved with phrases espousing "transgender ideology" have been debunked.
The rumor spread quickly after conservative commentator Steven Crowder posted to X on the morning of September 11 -- the day after the shooting -- claiming he had received an email from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives officer describing such engravings.
Crowder shared what he said was an email from an ATF officer claiming investigators had recovered the weapon used in Kirk's killing, with one spent cartridge in the chamber and three rounds still in the magazine. The email further alleged the cartridges were engraved with "transgender and anti-fascist ideology."
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