Chelsea Manning suspected of having attempted suicide, CNN reports
Chelsea Manning is suspected of having attempted suicide, according to a Wednesday morning tweet from CNN law enforcement reporter Shimon Prokupecz. She was taken to a hospital from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Chelsea Manning suspected of attempting suicide. Was taken to a hospital Tuesday from Fort Leavenworth, CNN.
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) July 6, 2016
Manning currently faces 35 years imprisonment after transmitting to WikiLeaks over 700,000 classified documents pulled from military servers. As the New York Times reported, Manning was dishonorably discharged and demoted from private first class to the lowest possible army ranking — private — when she was convicted in 2013. At the time, she was 25 and known as Bradley Manning; after receiving her sentence, Manning announced she identified as female.
"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me," she said in a 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."
In 2015, the U.S. Army granted her hormone therapy to transition while serving her sentence at the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks, deeming it "medically appropriate and necessary." Approval came only after she filed a lawsuit against the army because, she said, she'd been denied the treatment she needed for over a year. Even after she began hormone therapy, she wasn't allowed to grow out her hair, as doctors had recommended, and her mental health was reportedly shaken by the long denial of hormones.
On Friday, Manning penned an essay for the Guardian praising the military's decision to end its ban on transgender people in service, but arguing that the reforms don't go far enough in establishing legitimate equality.
Photos of Chelsea Manning before and after her transition:
