美泄密士兵·曼寧欲變性 改名切爾西

"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.據美國有線電視新聞網8月22日報道，美軍泄密士兵布拉德利•曼寧發佈聲明表示，希望變性成爲女人，公衆議論的焦點也迅速從軍事泄密案件本身轉向性別話題。

***希望成爲女性

曼寧在聲明中說：“我過渡到下一個生活階段。我希望大家瞭解真正的我。我叫切爾西•曼寧，我是一名女性。鑑於我從童年起就有的感受，我想盡快接受激素治療。我希望你們會支持我的這一轉變。”

美國軍方8月22日表示不會認同曼寧的女性身份。有軍官稱，軍方依舊將曼寧視爲男性。也有軍官表示曼寧將和其他囚犯接受同樣的待遇。他說：“很多犯人都有問題要處理。即使存在性別認同障礙，也得服刑。”

曼寧將在美國堪薩斯州利文沃斯堡服刑。利文沃斯堡發言人金伯利•劉易斯表示，和其他囚犯一樣，曼寧有權接受精神健康專家的服務，包括精神病醫生、心理學家、社會工作者和行爲學專家。即使軍方沒有提供激素治療或者變性手術，性別躁動的犯人仍然“必須完成服刑”。

不過，“人權運動”組織22日堅稱軍方應該滿足曼寧的願望。“她（曼寧）接受的治療應該是她和她的醫生一致認爲最好的。爲跨性別者提供醫學上的必要治療是政府責任，這是明確的法律共識，軍隊也有義務遵循這些原則。”

曼寧的律師戴維•庫姆斯表示，如果軍方不應曼寧請求提供激素治療，將採取行動。他說：“我希望利文沃思堡做正確的事情，提供治療。否則，我將盡我一切努力迫使他們這樣做。”

8月21日，曼寧因泄露75萬頁機密文件給維基解密而被判35年。7月，軍事法官給曼寧定了罪，其中不包括最嚴重的通敵罪。

***性別認同危機

曼寧的性別問題在軍事法庭審判中多次出現。軍方公佈的一張曼寧頭戴金色假髮的照片廣爲流傳。曼寧曾發給上司一封電子郵件，題爲“我的麻煩”，照片就在其中。曼寧在郵件中寫道：“它不會消失，而是隨着年齡增長越揮之不去。現在，後果很可怕，有時候帶給我巨大的痛苦。我不知道該怎麼做。”軍方心理學家說，曼寧看起來很孤獨，他面臨巨大的壓力。

庫姆斯表示，曼寧不想他希望變成女性的願望成爲公衆問題。 “她從來沒想要公開。當這個信息出現的時候，你需要理解，這是她在非常私人的環境下告訴阿德里安•拉莫的，是一對一的談話，從沒打算公開。現在，很不幸，你不得不以公開的方式來處理。”拉莫是美國加利福尼亞的一名黑客，曾於2004年承認侵入《紐約時報》的安全計算機網絡。拉莫說，2010年他和曼寧有過幾天交談。