Bradley Manning now Chelsea Manning

[gambitia]

Bradley Manning, the Army private who was convicted of leaking the largest cache of classified documents in U.S. history, announced Thursday that he plans to live out the rest of his life as female. "I am Chelsea Manning," the former intelligence analyst told supporters in a statement provided by his lawyer to NBC's Today show this morning. "I am a

Comments

[rex_dart]

I usually troll conservative commenters on NBC's Facebook but I can't even with this story. I am spitting tacks at the response.

[gambitia]

Yeah, I was hoping for at least 1 "I'm happy for her" or some variation in the comments. Nope.

[rex_dart]

There is always a lot of stupid, a lot of apologism for rape, murder, hate crimes, etc. but idk that I've ever seen so much open vitriol and so very little support. So, so angry rn.

[lisaee]

Oh god, the number of articles/comments failing to use the correct pronouns. I'm seeing he/she/Bradley all over Reddit despite so many commenters having known about her potential trans identity for some while now.

[gambitia]

I wasn't sure whether I should tag pronoun fail or not. Some think it's acceptable to continue to use the male pronoun (in Manning's case) to refer to her in the past when she was still expressing* as male.

But yeah, disappointing. I've screwed up pronouns before too and mistakes are made, but this is happening way too often. IDG why it's difficult to refer to someone the way they want to be referred to. Especially if you're a news outlet--where are your editors? This shit needs catching.

*This is not the word I want to use and I cannot think of the proper one. Total brain fart.

[lisaee]

I'll confess to having screwed up on a regular basis in the past. I think living with a number of trans* people in the past year has really reinforced my use of correct pronouns/names/etc, so I can sort of understand some people not quite getting it. What troubles me is the number of people who KNOW what pronouns and names they're meant to use, but refuse to do so on some idiotic basis, like the fact that her body and gender aren't necessarily aligned so therefore surely she can't be female.

I'm cisgender, so really my voice doesn't matter here, but I can't help but come to her defence on the internet.

[a_leprechaun]

Expressing = presenting? At least, that's the word I've heard used most often in my local trans community.

[nextdrinksonme]

I worry about her upcoming prison time. I don't think that they could send her to a women's wing (if they even have one there, which I'm not sure of) if she's only starting hormones and still has male genitalia, but I don't feel like she would be safe in the men's wing.

[qable]

This is a concern for me, as well.

[zukpager305]

I was thinking the same :(

[xo_bumblebee]

FWIW, I am pretty sure she will serve her time in a military disciplinary barracks. I did some general googling around, and while a military prison is no cakewalk, it *is* safer and more comfortable than a federal prison. The guards rotate in and out of that position every couple years, as they are soldiers, so there isn't the typical burnout that normal CO's have. There is also much better food, and people who are in disciplinary trouble with the military aren't at the point of being hardened career criminals (because if they were, the military wouldn't have accepted them in to begin with--it used to be you could have a felony waivered to join, but that isn't allowed anymore).

It's not like she will be living at a five star resort, but it definitely could be WAY worse. She is lucky that this was dealt with via court martial and not in regular criminal court.

[tadashee]

wow i had no idea this came up in the trial.

[a_leprechaun]

As heartbreaking as it is that she tried to "fix" herself by going into the armed forces, and as difficult as it will be to go to prison under these circumstances, I'm glad that she finally got to a place where she could come out.