"I am Chelsea Manning."
With those words, read from a statement on NBC's "Today" show on Thursday, Bradley Manning immediately shifted public conversation away from the Army private's conviction on espionage charges to gender identity.
"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me," Manning said in the statement. "I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition."
While his supporters may back Manning, the Army said Thursday it won't.
One Army official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about Manning's case, said the private remains a male in the eyes of the Army. Another said Manning would be treated like any other prisoner.
"A lot of the inmates have issues they're dealing with," said the second official, who also was not authorized to speak publicly about Manning's case. "Even if you have gender identity disorder, you still serve your sentence."
That includes access -- like any other inmate -- to mental health professionals like psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and behavioral expects, said
Kimberly Lewis, a spokeswoman at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where Manning will be held.
She added those diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the medical term for those who identify with another gender, "must still complete their sentence" without hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery provided by the Army.
The Human Rights Campaign, though, insisted Thursday that the military should grant Manning's wishes.
"The care she receives should be something that she and her doctors -- including professionals who understand transgender care -- agree is best for her," the campaign said, using the pronoun Manning asked to be identified by. "There is a clear legal consensus that it is the government's responsibility to provide medically necessary care for transgender people and the military has an obligation to follow those guidelines."
Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, told "Today" that he'll take action if the Army doesn't provide the hormone therapy Manning has requested.
"I'm hoping Fort Leavenworth would do the right thing and provide that," Coombs said. "If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that they are forced to do so."
Pfc. Manning was sentenced on Wednesday to 35 years in prison for leaking 750,000 pages of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. A military judge convicted Manning in July, sparing the former intelligence analyst from the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.
Gender identity issues
The issue of Manning's gender identity repeatedly surfaced during the court-martial. A widely circulated picture released by the military showed Manning wearing a blond wig.
The image came from an e-mail Manning sent to a superior titled "My Problem."
"It's not going away, it's haunting me more and more as I get older," Manning wrote in the e-mail. "Now, the consequences of it are dire, at a time when it's causing me great pain in itself. As a result, I'm not sure what to do about it."
An Army psychologist called by the defense said Manning appeared to be isolated and under intense pressure as a male soldier struggling with gender identity issues.
Speaking during the sentencing phase of the court-martial last week, Manning said the decision to leak the documents came while "dealing with a lot of issues" -- a reference to the gender identity crisis.
Reaction
Manning's announcement brought a range of reaction.
On Twitter, where "Chelsea Manning" was a hot topic of discussion, user onekade wrote of being "pretty much in awe of Chelsea Manning's bravery, on so many fronts."
Others were less supportive.
"Chelsea Manning," conservative pundit John Podhoretz tweeted. "This country has officially jumped the shark."
Coombs told "Today" that Manning did not intend to make a public issue of his desire to live as a woman.
"She never really wanted this to be public to begin with," Coombs said. "When the information came out, you need to understand that she gave it to Adrian Lamo in a very private setting, in a one-on-one chat, never expecting this to be public. Now that it is, unfortunately, you have to deal with it in a public manner."
Lamo is a former hacker from California who pleaded guilty in 2004 to breaking into The New York Times secure computer network. In 2010, Lamo, in California, and Manning, in Iraq, chatted over a few days, Lamo has said.
Legal issues
The issue of taxpayers being required to pay for gender reassignment surgery has come up repeatedly in recent court cases.
Earlier this year, a federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit brought by a transgender prisoner in Virginia, where a prison had refused to allow her to undergo sex reassignment surgery.
Last year, a federal judge ordered Massachusetts to pay for a sex change operation for a convicted murderer. The state is appealing that decision.
There are few good statistics on the number of transgender inmates in U.S. prisons, according to Vincent Villano of the National Center for Transgender Equality. A study of California prisons identified 330 transgender inmates in an overall prison population of 160,000, he said.
The center believes those numbers are higher, he said.
At Fort Leavenworth, Manning can't alter his clothing to reflect a desire to be seen as a woman.
Lewis noted that Army regulations require all prisoners wear a "distinctive ... uniform (with) a white name tag with black letters spelling the last name of the prisoner over the right picket of the shirt."
The letters won't change for Manning.
But, as Lewis said, Manning could otherwise go through the courts to legally change his first name -- to Chelsea.
据美国有线电视资讯网8月22日报道，美军泄密士兵布拉德利•曼宁发布声明表示，希望变性成为女人，公众议论的焦点也迅速从军事泄密案件本身转向性别话题。
***希望成为女性
曼宁在声明中说：“我过渡到下一个生活阶段。我希望大家了解真正的我。我叫切尔西•曼宁，我是一名女性。鉴于我从童年起就有的感受，我想尽快接受激素治疗。我希望你们会支持我的这一转变。”
美国军方8月22日表示不会认同曼宁的女性身份。有军官称，军方依旧将曼宁视为男性。也有军官表示曼宁将和其他囚犯接受同样的待遇。他说：“很多犯人都有问题要处理。即使存在性别认同障碍，也得服刑。”
曼宁将在美国堪萨斯州利文沃斯堡服刑。利文沃斯堡发言人金伯利•刘易斯表示，和其他囚犯一样，曼宁有权接受精神健康专家的服务，包括精神病医生、心理学家、社会工作者和行为学专家。即使军方没有提供激素治疗或者变性手术，性别躁动的犯人仍然“必须完成服刑”。
不过，“人权运动”组织22日坚称军方应该满足曼宁的愿望。“她（曼宁）接受的治疗应该是她和她的医生一致认为最好的。为跨性别者提供医学上的必要治疗是政府责任，这是明确的法律共识，军队也有义务遵循这些原则。”
曼宁的律师戴维•库姆斯表示，如果军方不应曼宁请求提供激素治疗，将采取行动。他说：“我希望利文沃思堡做正确的事情，提供治疗。否则，我将尽我一切努力迫使他们这样做。”
8月21日，曼宁因泄露75万页机密文件给维基解密而被判35年。7月，军事法官给曼宁定了罪，其中不包括最严重的通敌罪。
***性别认同危机
曼宁的性别问题在军事法庭审判中多次出现。军方公布的一张曼宁头戴金色假发的照片广为流传。曼宁曾发给上司一封电子邮件，题为“我的麻烦”，照片就在其中。曼宁在邮件中写道：“它不会消失，而是随着年龄增长越挥之不去。现在，后果很可怕，有时候带给我巨大的痛苦。我不知道该怎么做。”军方心理学家说，曼宁看起来很孤独，他面临巨大的压力。
库姆斯表示，曼宁不想他希望变成女性的愿望成为公众问题。 “她从来没想要公开。当这个信息出现的时候，你需要理解，这是她在非常私人的环境下告诉阿德里安•拉莫的，是一对一的谈话，从没打算公开。现在，很不幸，你不得不以公开的方式来处理。”拉莫是美国加利福尼亚的一名黑客，曾于2004年承认侵入《纽约时报》的安全计算机网络。拉莫说，2010年他和曼宁有过几天交谈。