Chelsea Manning Gives Her First In-Prison Interview...to "Cosmo"
Chelsea Manning, the soldier imprisoned for leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks, has spoken to the media for the first time since being sentenced to 35 years in prison, and you might be surprised to learn which media outlet she chose: Cosmopolitian magazine. Yes, you read that correctly. Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles has completed the magazine’s turnaround from the best place to read about alternative sex positions to a serious publication by securing one of the most highly-coveted tell-alls in recent history (just behind Bruce Jenner).
Manning, who landed behind bars in 2013 as Bradley Manning, is now a 27-year-old transgender woman living in a men’s jail. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Manning requested a legal name change and was diagnosed with gender dysmporphia by military doctors, but when the condition went untreated, the ACLU sued the military on Manning’s behalf. Eventually, it agreed to let her take hormones, put on makeup, and wear female underwear. Yet she still isn’t allowed to grow her hair long, which she says is “painful and awkward,” and while Manning’s had a slew of legal victories, such as being referred to as a woman, she still feels like military officials view her “like a joke.” She tells Cosmo, “I am torn up…I get through each day OK, but at night, when I’m alone in my room, I finally burn out and crash."
The former US Army Private First Class has felt this way for most of her life: "I spent a lot of time denying the idea that I could be gay or trans to myself. From the ages of 14 to 16, I was mostly convinced that I was just going through ‘phases.’ I ran away mentally, especially at night with access to the Internet and the labyrinth of anonymous communications,” she says. “I don’t know how [this struggle] shaped my life and who I am, but it’s absolutely a factor in the decisions that I made before and including when I enlisted in the Army.” In fact, she credits her time in Iraq as the motivating factor to finally coming out as transgender. "When I went on leave in January 2010, I was comfortable dressing as a woman in public. I wouldn’t have been able to do that before I deployed to a combat zone.“
Manning, who corresponded with the magazine through the mail (how old school) from her solo cell with "two tall vertical windows that face the sun” from where she can see “trees and hills and blue sky and all the things beyond the buildings and razor wire” because she’s restricted from speaking to reporters on the phone or in person, strictly communicated with Cosmo about very Cosmo topics, leaving out all talk of pending litigation (including Julian Assange-related info). The article includes her thoughts on Orange is the New Black (she hasn’t seen it, but thinks a trans woman living in a woman’s prison is unusual), celebrities (Vivienne Westwood, REM’s Michael Stipe, and Edward Snowden send her birthday cards), family, friends, future, and female empowerment. “I want everyone to know the real me,” Manning says. “I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female."
More from Yahoo Style:
The First and Friendliest Finishing School For Transgender Women
Trans Teen Jazz Jennings Becoming Clean & Clear’s New Face Is More Important Than You’d Think
Meet Rye, ModCloth’s First Trans Model
