Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, is suing the Army over the treatment that she is now going through in prison. Manning is set to serve 35 years for giving classified documents to the WikiLeaks website. On November 12th the government moved to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming it needs to be reviewed by the military court and that it is not a federal lawsuit.
The former army intelligence officer was making her transition to a transgender female and stated in her lawsuit that having the required short hair is a violation of her medical treatment prescribed by her doctors. Chelsea is being treated for gender dysphoria, which means she identifies as a different gender. The military has approved for some of the treatment to begin, such as hormone therapy, being able to wear female underwear, cosmetics and, of course, counseling.
The issue is that Manning filed a suit with the American Civil Liberties Union last fall, and it states that the officials have not allowed her to grow out her hair any longer than 2 inches. The crazy thing is that the military doctors have stated that this is a crucial part of the treatment being prescribed.
The rules set by the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth indicate that since it is a military prison for men, the rules are that the inmates must keep their hair to 2 inches. Women in the military prison can have longer hair. The ACLU filed a complaint last month and the military official filed to dismiss the case. Last week the Department of Justice filed a report in support of the motion for the case to be dismissed.
The government officials state that they are doing everything possible to give Manning the treatment that is needed and that there is “a significant amount of medical treatment for her gender dysphoria” and that if they make any more exceptions for the hair on top of everything else, it may, in their opinions, cause the prison military discipline issues and “pose a significant security risk.”
Chelsea’s ACLU attorney, Chase Strangio, has said that the government stated that Manning’s security is at risk if her hair is worn in a feminine way. “The government does suggest, in part, that they are prohibiting Chelsea’s treatment because it will put her at risk of assault and harassment,” They then stated to Cosmopolitan that, “The government has a separate constitutional and statutory obligation to keep Chelsea safe, and that cannot be achieved by denying her other constitutional rights.”
Manning’s attorney also states that “Treating Chelsea, a transgender woman, as male and denying her this feminizing treatment is a huge risk to her physical and emotional safety,” and that “so many transgender women in custody and in the free world take their own lives because of these denials of care. The government is greatly diminishing and almost mocking the severity of Chelsea’s needs.”
Manning’s attorney states that most prisons and jails in the U.S. house inmates based on their sex that they were given at birth. “This practice itself is cruel, as it offers no consideration for the particular gender and safety needs of individual transgender prisoners,” says Chase Strangio.
Chelsea stated in a post for Medium a week ago, “Presenting myself in the gender that I am is about my right to exist. What the government is basically telling me is ‘you cannot exist,’ that ‘you are wrong,’ and that ‘you do not exist.”
Image via U.S. Army File
