U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning said Thursday that he will live as a woman and seek hormone replacement therapy while incarcerated, confronting the military prison system with a demand that has prompted state and federal institutions to reluctantly offer similar treatment to inmates.
"I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female," the former intelligence analyst wrote in a statement released on NBC's "Today" show just a day after he was sentenced to 35 years at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for leaking classified documents.
The army issued a statement saying that Manning will receive counseling from mental health professionals at the all-male prison but that the army does not "provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery for gender identity disorder."