Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted to a security vehicle outside a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md. Manning plans to live as a woman named Chelsea and wants to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible, the soldier said Thursday, a day after he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for sending classified material to WikiLeaks.Bradley Manning is the first transgender military inmate to ask for hormone treatments, officials say, a request that could lead to a legal showdown over how — and if — the soldier convicted in the WikiLeaks case will be allowed to live as a female behind bars.
Current Pentagon policy dictates that transgender soldiers are not allowed to serve, and Manning won’t be discharged until being released from prison and all appeals are exhausted. Furthermore, the military does not allow soldiers to undergo hormone treatments while in the all-male prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. — though this is the first time officials have heard of a request for such treatment, said Maria Tolleson, a spokeswoman with the Army Medical Command in Arlington, Va.
“We’re just now dealing with the issue,” she said, adding it would be premature to say there has been any movement toward offering the care to all transgender inmates as a result of Manning’s case.
Manning also won’t be allowed to dress as a woman, as wigs and bras are not allowed. The soldier’s gender dysphoria — the sense of being a woman in a man’s body — coupled with the military convictions could leave him to face an isolated future, shunned by fellow inmates and transgender veterans on the outside who believe the leaks put Manning’s comrades in danger.
It is not known whether Manning could be transferred to a female prison, though defense attorney David Coombs has said that was not the motive behind the Army private’s statement Thursday asking to be referred to by feminine pronouns, signed “Chelsea E. Manning.”