Bradley Manning wants henceforth to be known as Chelsea Manning
No, this is not the Onion:
“As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. 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. I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun.
Transsexualism is an extremely poorly understood and controversial condition—its cause, its meaning, its very reality, and most pointedly its proper treatment. I’m not going to go into all that in this post except to say I do not think it is a unitary phenomenon. I have come to the conclusion that some transsexualism has a biological etiology, and some a more purely psychological one (which can sometimes feature quite a bit of pathology and sometimes not), and some a mixture. We’ll leave it at that for now.
What interests me about this new Bradley/Chelsea Manning announcement is that he/she (never was the use of the double pronoun more apt) seems to want us to pay for it:
“I’m hoping that Fort Leavenworth would do the right thing and provide that. If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that they are forced to do so,” Coombs [Mannings’ lawyer] said.
Fort Leavenworth told Courthouse News on Tuesday that it does not provide sex-reassignment surgery or hormone therapy, but it does provide psychiatric care.
Methinks somehow that a lawsuit by Manning to compel more than psychiatric treatment is in the offing.
And I can’t resist pointing out that bad puns almost irresistibly present themselves. So please forgive me for asking why Manning does not go the distance, as it were, and request to change his/her last name, too?
ADDENDUM: I absolutely have to revisit this clip right about now (hat tip: American Digest):
This is really beyond reason. What do you expect when you allow, even promote, deviants to joint the military?
And he wants the US Army to pay for it…..
the only sex change operation they should pay for is to shoot the traitor in the groin. Yep, that’ll do it.
So can we cut off his private parts now? I mean, I wouldn’t want him to suffer the psychological trauma of carrying around that dangling package. Besides, Owebama can’t pardon his d-ck and balls back onto his body.
Roman — remember, they weren’t allowed to ask, and he wasn’t compelled to tell.
Sounds like she’s planning to make the most of her stay with the boys at Leavenworth.
“I’m hoping that Fort Leavenworth would do the right thing and provide that. If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that they are forced to do so,”
Maybe she can make a deal with the government to work off the bill by entertaining clients in the prison — at least the tax payers would be getting more bang for their buck.
There is a picture of Ms. Manning in camo fatigues, surrounded by soldiers, also in camo fatigues, who tower over and span twice greater at the shoulders than the troll. It begs to question ‘what’s wrong with this picture?’ The answer, my answer, would be that tolerance had run amuck.
Life has now become The Onion.
The first thing that is said about a baby upon being born (prior to ultrasound that now reveals this information while in utero), is “it’s a boy” or “it’s a girl”. Genesis 5:2, “He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them ‘Mankind’ when they were created.” I’ve been reading up on mental illness and whether it is a result of physical brain injury, drug or environmentally arrived at, it exists. And if what I’m discovering is true, we are on the precipice of seeing an explosion in mental illness in our culture. I’ll stick with my Judeo-Christian understanding of reality, even though, “we see through a glass darkly..” The dark prism of our current sphere doesn’t appeal to me.
rickl,
Life has been The Onion for some time now. Why do you think Iowahawk gave up writing biting satire and only does Twitter now? He had too much competition from real life and no one could tell the difference.
For the record, I’m a genius trapped in an idiot’s body. This Manning case means there’s a glimmer of hope that I can get thrown in jail, and demand that taxpayers liberate my inner Einstein and make me smart. Or something like that.
In some senses, those with gender dysfunction identity have enough stress in their life that it amounts to the same as a mental illness. One that can have interesting effects on the rest of us when that person, due to PC “diversity” in the military, is protected and allowed to make “judgments” concerning other people’s lives.
funny, but liberal utopia is looking more like a mash up between a woody Allen movie, Loki running heaven, and script that Discordians could worship to (cause it has a good beat).
when the war starts, one side will be competent
the other side will look like the clowns of Ringling brothers pretending to be cavalry rescue
but dont worry feminists…
these are the future sons in law, and ousted daddies your daughters now have to choose from..
its the ultimate expression of cargo cultism’s idea that the surface appearance is all the substance there is
so, change the surface appearance, and voila, your a woman… now you can seek lesbian relationships in girls bathrooms… (which is not to be confused with Lebanese relationships, as my spell checker thinks so)
next we here that he has joined the Bronies and has a loonie (balloon) fetish…
“So please forgive me for asking why Manning does not go the distance, as it were, and request to change his/her last name, too?””
Herring?
Please don’t. I’ve always liked pickled herring (especially as a good luck dish for the New Year); so please don’t “ruin” it with that name!
But, thankfully, “Herr” is German for Mr. so that really won’t work. And Womanning just sounds stupid.
Perhaps, a more appropriate last name change would be to “Arnold” as in Benedict Arnold; or Quisling would be even more fitting.
I’m sure Neo and her readers could come up with a dozen or so more appropriate last names that would fit Manning’s treasonous character.
“As I transition into this next phase of my life, …. in taking the term “prison wife” to whole new levels.”
Charles:
Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of Unmanning.
‘Unmanning’. Close.
I’ll go with Demanning. After all, Manning is demanding to be demanned. Or something like that.
Transsexualism and homosexuality are not the same thing. It’s entirely possible that Manning has no interest whatsoever in meeting ‘Bubba’. If so, setting aside the sincerity of Manning’s claim, this is an absolutely brilliant ploy to avoid meeting any Bubbas, Guidos or Bucks…
As for doing this on the taxpayer’s dime, the unspoken democrat party platform supports the view that, ‘your’ money is ‘our’ money and, the sooner America gets with the program, the better for all.
On a more sane note, if Leavenworth is directed by Obama to start providing free gender ‘reassignment’ surgery to its prisoners, I see no rationale way to deny that procedure to all members of the military.
And, if one unacknowledged goal of the left is to emasculate the American military, this is an excellent tactic toward that goal.
I know I shouldn’t, but I still find it stunning that media folks on the left are falling so quickly into line — Wikipedia now has the entry on Manning as “Chelsea Manning” and uses the feminine pronoun throughout, and Slate salutes them for following AP/GLAAD style guidelines.
Manning does change his mind a lot, by the way; he wanted to be called “Breanna” back in 2010.
I wonder if he’s received any text messages from Anthony Weiner?
How could a man possibly have any experience of “feeling like a woman” inside? How would have a clue as to what that feels like?
Ripple,
I agree. These people have created a fantasy world and all too many of our PC idiots are encouraging them and telling them the fantasy is true.
Bradley needs therapy, not hormones.
Ann Says:
August 22nd, 2013 at 4:43 pm
So Winston Smith is a Wikipedia editor? That’s good to know.
Chelsea Manning has always been a woman. Get with the program, comrade.
Ripple:
Well, he would know he didn’t “feel like a man” (or like his notion of what other men feel) and he would know that he felt like his perception of what a woman would feel like.
“How could a man possibly have any experience of “feeling like a woman” inside?”
Only someone unfamiliar with Gender Theory (taught in all the best schools) could ask such a question. Manning doesn’t have to speculate as to what feeling like a woman might be like because its exactly like what a man feels. That is, according to Gender Theory, which posits that all internal differences between men and women are cultural, that no actual inherent difference exists.
Obviously the entire human race has been confused for millennia. One wonders how we survived without elitist intellectuals and man-hating feminists to straighten us out.
“There are some ideas so wrong, that only a very intelligent person [completely lacking in wisdom] could believe in them.” George Orwell
“Unmanning” – I like that as it is very fitting. He did act in an “unmanly” manner by betraying his country now didn’t he?
Ugh!
Ran into an article today about Manning that had a supposed picture of him in his new “persona” with a long blond wig and lotsa very red lipstick (I believe I read recently that he used to send pictures of himself in his “woman” getup to a shrink).
If he made a shrimpy, sickly looking, ridiculous “man,” his ghastly faux “women” is even worse.
I think someone on another thread here mentioned the 2004 article written by Paul McHugh, the psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins who was instrumental in stopping sex-change operations there. It’s a long article, well worth reading. Here’s the final part:
Collaborating with madness says it all, I think.
I wish Chelsea I am a Woman no harm, it already lives in a world of confusion and sorrow.
This little POS is lucky they didn’t try and convict him of treason, tie him to a post and ventilate him, and now he wants us taxpayers to pay for his sex change operation?
Oh, Hell no!
This bundle of neuroses was given access to classified material and not supervised appropriately.
Somebody needs to pay for that.
Hell, make him a mechanic. Company clerk. Supply clerk.
Wonder if it was like Hasan; implied prejudice against sexual nutcases would look bad.
Ann: You beat me to it. Paul McHugh, Psychiatrist in Chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, led the successful push for the hospital to ban the transsexual surgery. He said the surgeons were almost all hugely relieved — it was very hard for them to amputate normal, perfectly functioning organs. Here’s another bit:
He goes on to talk about how tragic it is that these people hate themselves and their bodies so much that they want to amputate crucial parts of their anatomy — and how crazy it is that we accommodate them. (He spends some time on the case of the hermaphrodite infants, too, a special case.)
Splitter!
Side note: This is just part of Brads/Breanna’s/Chelsea’s strategy to mitigate or vacate his sentence. One step is to apply for pardon from Obama.
Question: If Manning gets his sex change operation, Can “she” be tried too? Just sayin’ . . . or askin’.
Not really interested in Pvt Mannings sex life or preferences. He/she/it needs to do his/her/it’s time just like any other traitor. No priviledges, no unnecessary medical expenses and standard prison clothing.
I suspect he thinks sex reassignment will keep him away from Bubba and the boys. He should have thought of that before. Suck it up you whiny little b@stard.
Well, I haven’t written a word in m own political blog for awhile, and perhaps this is the occasion to do so. I have to say, I am not in the least happy to hear this announcement, and ah, while I heard rumors through the grapevine for some time that Manning was indeed going to claim to be transsexual, I did not want to even, think about it. I am probably one of the few trans people I know, with this reaction, but there are a few of us trans people who are not keen on Manning, though we are certainly outnumbered by the left leaning bunch. At any rate, that was a measured column neo, and I am refraining from the comments here! Heh… I am against what Bradley Manning did, and wish that she/he was NOT associated with us in the least. I would normally say “she” in this case, but let * her * get there, and earn it. In a few months, we shall see… if she/he continues in this direction. I am embarrassed to hear that Manning is trans, what more can I say? Well, possibly that this person is a mess psychologically and a worm and a traitor and frankly, tomorrow they may form another idea about who they are. I don’t entirely trust it. At any rate, again, I just feel embarrassed. DO not want to be associated in any way with such a person…
Dang — 🙁
Something should be very clear here:
1) If someone that is a working individual with their own unique psychological issues decides to have therapy that involves hormones and possible surgery that he or she pays for himself or herself based on months and months of slow, deliberate, and rational counseling exploring all options– making a free choice as a free individual to determine his or her own affairs– then that’s one thing.
2) If someone that is a criminal, having done something clearly illegal and pussy-foot-ed around that fact, adopts a transsexual identity as a sort of politically correct shield for his or her own behavior and then tries to force other people to pay for his or her desires… then that’s another thing.
Let’s not confuse these two people. They are as clear and different as oil is from water and night is from day. This is important.
It’s frustrating as all f–king hell to see this treated as the same. Jeffrey Dahmer is not to be held up as someone that somehow is a lens to treat normal gay men with. The KKK is not to be held up as a lens with which to think of all Southerners by.
Swiper:
I certainly don’t see them as the same. Bradley Manning’s announcement, and especially the time of it considering his/her circumstances, is especially suspect. And my focus is the idea that the government should be providing the treatment, and if they refuse they will be sued by Manning.
Actually, turning rapists and Islamic jihadists into women wouldn’t be that bad of a sentence.