Chelsea Manning’s Transition in a U.S. Military Prison,
and How The Media Perceived This + Final Musings
by Kristian Trey Kodman
Abstract:
The two most notable facts known of Chelsea Manning are that she leaked hundreds of thousands of classified United States political and military cables to Wikileaks.com and that she was the first person to go through gender transition therapy during military imprisonment. This essay will discuss both and how gender dysphoria views have changed in the media, military, and medical fields. These changes have led to an opening up on how mental health plays a critical role in how individuals like Manning can be a catalyst in the media for more welcoming and wary outlooks from the media sphere.
Introduction:
What will be achieved from this research will determine how the media perceive transgender military service, personality disorder vs. gender dysphoria, and also the changing landscape for marginalized LGBTQ individuals within federal and state prisons.
The topic of transgender service in the military stemming from the Manning scenario can be a sensitive subject for some within the LGBTQ community. Some of them have dared to call Manning a traitor while others have embraced Chelsea’s cause for making the world a better place by exposing war crimes by the U.S. These subjects are not of a marginalized group of people anymore. They have weighing implications around the world. Manning opened a Pandora’s Box not only for her experience but for the experience of countless numbers to come after. Therefore, to understand that research on anything related is of dire importance, and needs recognition with the utmost seriousness.
Review of Literature:
First, we must ask ourselves how this conversation got started. That is how most social change arises in the U.S. Someone starts the conversation. If it is good enough to keep talking about, the general public deems it large enough to elicit supported change among its status — the threshold of marginalized to normalized. However, having this conversation is always more accessible outside of the military or prison.
Why did Manning leak these cables?
For it may seem that U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning was the perfect trojan horse set into a position to infiltrate the darkest active vault of damning intelligence against, and allegedly perpetrated by U.S. personnel. Why was it this self-identifying gay man serving in the U.S. Army under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would feel compelled to risk a lifetime sentence in prison, or possibly even execution by committing treasonous acts?
On August 21, 2013, a U.S. military court sentenced Chelsea Manning to 35 years in prison for leaking confidential U.S. military documents to WikiLeaks. The following day, Manning released a statement coming out as a transgender woman. Manning’s revelation emerged during a summer that saw the rise of a national discourse about trans-military inclusion (Spade & Willse, 2014). It is safe to say that Manning unwittingly became a liability and spearhead for the opening up of gay and trans service members to have their place in formation, as well.
Manning is a hero to those who oppose U.S. militarism. Since Manning’s arrest, those people and organizations have worked to present her in a sympathetic light, often relying on the tropes developed by the pro-military, anti-DADT advocacy of brave, proud, gay soldiers. (Spade & Willse, 2014) Moreover, with the complete disappearance of the antiwar movement in the U.S. since the launch of the 2003 Iraq invasion, there was still enough rallied support for Manning to get the attention outside of the military and intelligence circles to make these detrimental changes, most notably Julian Assange.
U.S. military and other first-world militaries on transgender service members’ differences?
In eighteen countries — including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Canada — transgender people can serve openly in the military. Military policies in these countries either explicitly enable or implicitly allow transgender-identified individuals to take part in a range of military activities. In the United States, however, transgender people remain excluded from open military service (Barnett & Hill, 2015). The implied stigma is a cause of the current bias, and bigotry still eluding the effort to live free in a nation of sacrifice.
The September 2011 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” made possible open service for gay, lesbian, and bisexual men and women. Although current military policies still exclude transgender people from enlisting and/or disclosing their transgender identity while serving in the U.S. armed forces (Barnett & Hill, 2015). Again, masking the problem is an American epidemic at governmental levels. These decisions may have more to do with having strategic options in the future, but it still defeats the purpose of settling unfair treatment to a select small group of people in a country based on equality.
Nevertheless, the Williams Institute estimated that nearly 150,000 transgender individuals either have served or are currently serving in some capacity in the U.S. military. Thus, although transgender people continue to serve their country in secrecy, policies in the U.S. Department of Defense have been slow to change regarding the issue of open transgender service (Barnett & Hill, 2015). Moreover, via tweet, President Trump decided to return the ban on transgender enlistment in the U.S. military.
Why the change for transgender people from a mental disorder to gender dysphoria?
Although it is difficult to determine the precise size of this population, a 2009 study by Brown and McDuffie estimates that approximately 750 prisoners in the United States identify as transgender. These are a relatively small portion of the U.S. prison population, but it represents a sizable portion of America’s transgender population. Nearly one in six transgender Americans and almost half of the African American transgender population-has previous incarceration in a state or federal prison (Agbemenu, 2015). Another epidemic of a revolving door of criminal activity from marginalization forcing transgender persons to result to crime for survival.
The dominant legal argument used to secure medical treatment for transgender prisoners is rooted in the Eighth Amendment’s language regarding “cruel and unusual punishments.” Specifically, legal advocates have argued that gender dysphoria-the state of distress brought on by a disconnect between one’s gender identity and biological sex-constitutes a “pressing medical need”’ and, therefore, cannot be deliberately ignored by prison staff (Agbemenu, 2015). So, we see here the justice system thinking it can solve a medical problem with legal means. From drug addictions to gender dysphoria, the U.S. justice system too often fails people in their custody than needing help that does not receive it.
Unnecessary routes to prisons for the U.S. transgender community persist.
Research indicates that police officers tend to stereotype transgender individuals as sex workers, leading “to harassment and solicitation by undercover officers attempting to crack down on prostitution.” Transgender individuals get arrested for using the “wrong” public restroom (Smith, 2015). Daily necessities of these people are toyed with by the authorities that in this country have historically been known to take segregating groups and to be relentless in discrimination to inhumane levels.
What the standard for the reality of transgender is so professional empathy can occur.
“Gender identity” refers to each person’s subjective understanding of themselves as being men, women, a combination of those, or neither, and can change and evolve. (Porta, 2013) Having news reporters, politicians, parents, teachers, doctors, and many other facets of society embrace those who have to walk this path in their life, then real change and normalization can occur throughout the society.
The support is not always there for Manning from the LGBTQ veteran community.
In 2013, Sean Sala, a prominent gay military activist in the Bay area and Navy veteran, threatened to launch a campaign to boycott the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration if Manning was honored. Sala said, “San Francisco has spit in the face of LGBT Military by using a traitor to our country as a poster child (Fischer, 2016).” The real support for Manning starts far away from the mainstream. Wikileaks was not mainstream. Being gay in San Francisco is very mainstream.
It does not matter what the corporate media thinks of Chelsea Manning.
Complicated partnerships make up the major news organizations. The parallel with the politicians, the military, the defense corporations, the banks, and the list goes on and on that only nexus at a fascist intersection. They all bend the knee to the idea of keeping the system they are all tied to in working condition. When some new frontier of perspective comes to the surface, so often, some would point and ridicule before taking a full appraisal of the new perspective. Nevertheless, there are other reasons that Manning received minimal respect.
Kristen Beck, who is a former Navy SEAL and transgender, performs positive campaigning for the transgender community… However, Chelsea Manning is the one who has made headlines. Regardless of what anyone’s opinion of her innocence or her motive, it is unfortunate that a story with such a negative connotation represents the whole transgender community (Jobe, 2013). No matter how for the greater good Manning’s actions were toward making the world a better place, the act of working against the U.S. government can follow even the exonerated beyond the grave.
In conclusion, the material presented above should distinctly converse the subject of Manning’s role in the LGBTQ community and how it ties to military service. Manning’s place in it is away from their norm and rings true when it comes to Manning’s relationship with the major news networks. They can never praise Manning, for it would insult the connection with government journalism has.
Method:
Analysis conducted was through a series of visits to scholarly search engines online varying the search titles for essays on the Chelsea Manning phenomenon, and other subjects relating to gender dysphoria in the military. It took reading through about a dozen articles to get the selections in the section above. Most selections were from introductions, or close to the thesis statements in each essay, and other subjects relating to gender dysphoria in the military.
Discussion:
Knowledge acquired from doing this research gave a new perspective on how Manning is seen by the media and what her role is now in the allowing or banning of transgender military personnel. The limited and well-managed connection to both is minimal at best, especially with Manning being held in jail for contempt in a grand jury hearing on a case filed against Julian Assange. Manning has not been seen in public since May 21, 2019, in front of that courtroom.
On who can serve in the armed forces, an opinion to model is that of Paul Watson’s of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, “I don’t think gays should serve in the military the same way I don’t think anyone should serve in the military.”
Sources:
Agbemenu, Esinam (2015). Medical Transgressions in America’s Prisons: Defending Transgender Prisoners’ Access to Transition-Related Care. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dell0926/Downloads/MEDICAL_TRANSGRESSIONS_IN_AMERICA_S_PRISONS.pdf.
Barnett, J. T., & Hill, B. J. (2015). Covert Operation Archiving the Experiences of Transgender Service Members in the U.S. Military. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dell0926/Downloads/584Barnett.pdf.
Fischer, M. (2016). Contingent belonging: Chelsea Manning, transpatriotism, and iterations of empire. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dell0926/Downloads/Fischer_M._2016_._Contingent_Belonging_C.pdf.
Jobe, J. N. (2013). Transgender Representation in the Media. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dell0926/Downloads/Transgender%20Representation%20in%20the%20Media.pdf.
Porta, M. (2013). Not Guilty by Reason of Gender Transgression: The Ethics of Gender Identity Disorder as Criminal Defense and the Case of PFC. Chelsea Manning. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dell0926/Downloads/Not%20Guilty%20by%20Reason%20of%20Gender%20Transgression_%20The%20Ethics%20of%20Gende.pdf.
Smith, K. (2015). FREE TO BE ME: INCORPORATING TRANSGENDER VOICES INTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRISON POLICIES. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dell0926/Downloads/Smith.pdf.
Spade, D., & Willse, C. (2014). Sex, Gender, and War in an Age of Multicultural
Imperialism. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dell0926/Downloads/QED-Manning-article.pdf.
Final Musings
by Kristian Trey Kodman
DISCOVERIES:
The real findings of this research performed were that of realizing Chelsea Manning’s true sacrificial nature and instincts in the face of the empire whom she was working as a soldier. That detrimental point was what gave Manning such a hard road ahead after the decision was made to release the diplomatic cables to a news source for leaking to the general public. Being a whistleblower wasn’t a path in her options.
It made even more sense to the fact Manning couldn’t get the New York Times or the Washington Post to take the story before moving on to Julian Assange’s Wikileaks. It took a non-US publisher to get those files in the open. Protecting interests and contacts among the US government in those major US publishers is more important than vetting a massive 750,000 cable package this protecting US interests and assets. Instead, they were all released to the very non-governmental organization of Wikileaks. “Collateral Murder” was the centerpiece to this release of documented war crimes.
WHAT MORE I’VE LEARNED:
A realization of place in a social group in times of hyper-partisanship, tribalism, and an ever-increasing amount of civil conflicts evolving from peaceful protests hampers the ability to express happiness for being yourself. This occurrence can invest the individual to having a claim of reason in a group, and that can evolve to an organization. We distinguish between organization and other forms of order, between the organized and non-organized. We see organization as a particular kind of social order. We suggest a definition of organization as a decided order, including one or more of the elements of membership, hierarchy, rules, monitoring, and sanctions. Such a definition makes the distinction between organization and environment less dramatic (Ahrne & Brunnson, 2016). Breaking these rules and sanctions can lead to a renegotiated reputation of the individual inside of the sphere of influence. In this case, Manning could never wear the badge of true submission unto the US military for any LGBT acceptance into the ranks and operational history. Manning essentially unicorned herself with her actions.
Having grievances with Manning from the possibly tens of thousands of LGBT military personnel still serving at the time of her confinement is cause for concern. The will to serve can lead anyone down a path of extreme prejudice, even within their own social or political group. Derogatory stereotypes describe out-groups that are seen as competitive or exploitative and having low status (e.g., people who are homeless). Because these groups are thought to usurp economic and political capital that would otherwise go to higher status groups in society, they are seen as competing in a zero-sum distribution of resources. These groups are seen as having low warmth and low competence, and they are disliked and disrespected as a result. Disliking and disrespect further undermine the social power of these groups (Cikara & Fiske, 2004). Disallowing Manning to have a platform as a soldier to reveal untold truths would obviously not be to the detriment to the LGBT community of the US military.
Works Cited:
Ahrne, G., & Brunnson, N. (2010). Organization outside organizations: the significance of partial organization. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dell0926/Downloads/Ahrne & Brunsson, 2010.pdf.
Cikara, M., & Fiske, S. T. (2004). WARMTH, COMPETENCE, AND AMBIVALENT SEXISM: VERTICAL ASSAULT AND COLLATERAL DAMAGE . Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dell0926/Downloads/Cikara & Fiske.pdf.
