The September 9 edition of People magazine included an article on Bradley Manning headlined “The Secret After the Sentence: Found guilty of espionage, the discharged Army private reveals she is transgendered and will go to military prison as ‘Chelsea’.”
Reporter Johnny Dodd aggressively used female pronouns even inserting one in a quote from Manning's defense lawyer: “What drove [her] actions was a strong moral compass.”
“This is absolutely not a surprise to trans people such as myself,” says activist Lauren McNamara, to whom Manning confided in February 2009, over a year after her arrest...
Manning’s Aug. 22 request “to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible” adds another twist to an already controversial legal case. An official at the all-male Leavenworth prison, where Manning could be eligible for parole in seven years, says the Army “doesn’t provide” hormone therapy to inmates; Manning has since stated she will pay for treatments.
Whatever the outcome, her Oklahoma childhood friend Chera Moore remains optimistic that Manning’s decision to become a woman is a good thing. “I just hope,” says Moore, “that this finally helps him find peace and be happy.”
Oops! People left "him" in that last one.
