Earlier this week we heard that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is open to reviewing the Military’s ban on transgender people.
But as it stands, they aren’t allowed to join. And with that ban also comes a ban on medical services related to transgender issues.
For Chelsea Manning, who is currently serving 35 years in military incarceration for providing classified information to WikiLeaks, that means no hormones.
But now the Pentagon is reportedly considering transferring the 26-year-old inmate to a civilian prison, allowing her to receive hormone treatment to transition physically from male to female.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Officials admit privately that the move does have a self-serving angle. Some fear that if Manning were to be kept in the military facility and banned from transitioning, the argument for cruel and unusual punishment could be made on medical grounds.
LGBTI rights group Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that fights for transgender prisoner rights nationwide, has an idea.
Regarding one particular case on which the SPLC is working, transgender prisoner Ashley Diamond said:
“No one would deny a diabetic prisoner insulin. No one would sentence a person to a gender change.
But because I am transgender, I am denied basic medical care and forced to change gender. Nobody should be sentenced to torture like this.”
Judges tend to agree with Diamond when the issue reaches courtrooms.
h/t GayStar News
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
I am disgusted by those who support this little shit………
Gays who serve in the military face tremendous hurdles to conquer to gain the trust of the rest of the men in their units. Manning took an oath, no one forced him to join. He violated that oath and diseminated classifed information that landed in enemy hands. He put each and every American in jeapordy and made it 100% more difficult for fellow Gay soldiers to be trusted within their unit.
He is nothing but a selfish publicity whore, a vile nefarious traitor and deserves no sympathy from any American especially from the Gay community………
jayj150
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Funny he is now going to use the money of the people whose security he jeopardized to pay for his cosmetic treatments.
Throbert McGee
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: I think you already know this, PWWO, but Manning is supported by Americans who are embarrassed by their country’s ability to project enormous military power around the globe because OMG!! White imperialist warmongers colonizing indigenous pplz!!!!!!, so of course they don’t care if American military personnel were jeopardized by Manning’s actions. No Americans, so far as we know, came to harm as a result of Manning’s leaks — and if any Afghani translators or other foreign civiial contractors came to harm, then it just serves ’em right for betraying the indigenous Taliban freedom fighters to the white imperialist warmongers.
Throbert McGee
Ooops… make that “foreign civilian contractors. PIMF.
Lvng1tor
Regardless of how you feel about her guilt I would like someone to explain to me why it is her right to transition on tax payer dime? I really would like the argument to be explained to me. Was she transitioning before she was arrested. This makes a difference to me. If she was then I can see continuing her treatment. If not then I see no reason why it should be started. No it is not the equivalent of insulin for a diabetic that’s ridiculous. One is life saving one is not.
tdx3fan
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Very well said, I also do not believe that an elective cosmetic procedure such as hormone therapy has any place within the justice system. Our prisons should not have to pay for this. If someone wants to transition, then I will support them, but I will not support forcing prisons to pay for that transition. If it is not policy for the military to transfer similar prisoners then they should not do so for Ms. Manning. That is what true equality is… treating everyone equal.
Throbert McGee
As to this:
Who here actually believes that if the military had ended the ban on gays AND transgender people 20 years ago, and Bradley Manning had been given taxpayer-funded hormones to begin the transition to “Chelsea” just as soon as he enlisted in the Army, then she would have turned out to be a totally reliable and psychologically stable female soldier who would not have dreamed of violating her oath by leaking classified information just because she was “stressed” by her work environment?
Anyone?
tdx3fan
@Throbert McGee: Indigenous people that have proven time and time again that they would do anything to destroy an American. Sure, we should have just handed them nuclear weapons to see if they would use them or not.
tdx3fan
@Throbert McGee: There is no possibility that that is a reality. She most likely would have still proven to be unstable because being unstable is being unstable. You can be trans without being unstable and you can be unstable without being trans. I do not believe that one causes the other.
Throbert McGee
@Lvng1tor:
The scam works like this, Lvng1tor:
“Daddy, I an Oompa Loompa and free hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery RIGHT NOW, and if you don’t give ’em to me, I’ll get so depressed that I might consider hanging myself. Let my blood be on your hands!”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzr12gBrXA8?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360%5D
Throbert McGee
Damnation, why would it be so hard for Queerty to add an edit function for times like this when copy-pasted URLs don’t show up quite right?
tdx3fan
@Throbert McGee: Put her on suicide watch 24 hours a day 7 days a week if she tries this crap. Then she can start whining about how she is on suicide watch like she did when she was in isolation for her own safety.
Throbert McGee
@tdx3fan:
I totally agree with that, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to boot trans people from the military and invite them to come back and re-enlist 3-5 YEARS AFTER they’ve had a successful transition.
That way, they’re basically starting afresh with colleagues who will know them as “Pvt. Jane, who’s rather broad shouldered and square-jawed for a woman” (which a reasonable person should be able to process) rather than “Pvt. John who you showered with in boot camp and has subsequently had his penis chopped off and is now Pvt. Jane.” (which is hard to process even for some highly reasonable people)
What’s totally unreasonable to the point of batsh*t insanity, however, is asking taxpayers to fund the “transitions” of military personnel with Gender Identity Dysphoria and then the Pentagon has to just cross its fingers and hope that the person turns out to be a psychologically functional soldier rather than a total basketcase who can’t be discharged because OMG PREJUDICE!!!
hex0
Manning leaked thousands of classified documents on to the internet without even viewing them. Governments should not pay for elective surgery and hormones for prisoners.
The “LGBT” community should stop supporting criminals.
Will L
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Thank you. You put it very well.
@jayj150: Exactly!
Treason used to be handled by a firing squad. The only shots we should provide are to the head.
jayj150
@hex0: For what it’s worth, the LGB does not support him; it’s his fellow transsexuals that have appropriated the voice of groups that used to be for LGB folks(GLAAD, for example). Just like we LGB folks don’t support Mock’s publicity antics, or Carrera’s trying to destroy gay culture, most of us don’t support this criminal.
BitterOldQueen
That she “deserves”?? Really? It’s the responsibility–no, “deserves” means it’s the f*cking DUTY of taxpayers to fund gender reassignment? I fully and heartily support the struggles of my trans brothers and sisters, but I fail to see how it’s other peoples’ duty to underwrite their medical services.
JusMe_DoinMe
THE TAXPAYERS SHOULD NOT BE PAYING FOR THIS
aliengod
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Absolutely!
aliengod
I absolutely do NOT want my tax dollars paying for this crap. As a gay man, I completely disagree with the LGB community adding any more letters to our cause.
sweetbrandigirl2004
@BitterOldQueen: Really ! You can’t see how it’s the peoples place to pay for this ? UH let try because she is a WARD of the Government which means its their responsibility to not only house her, feed her, clothes her, provide her legal services, but ALSO to give her medical necessary treatment. Having been diagnosed as GID the medically necessary treat meant for which is “TRANSITION” which includes but isn’t ,limited to counseling, hormone replacement therapy, gender reassignment surgery and for some FFS facial feminization surgery. That being the case it is fully and completely the peoples obligation to pay for this just like if a prisoner had a heart condition and needed bypass surgery or an inmate needing a liver transplant, both are medically necessary treatment no different the transition is the medically necessary treatment for GID.
Throbert McGee
@sweetbrandigirl2004: Honey, are you an actual person with GID, or just a troll trying to make transpeople look insane by claiming that facelifts are a medical necessity?