Wikipedia
Imprisoned Army whisteblower Chelsea Manning began a hunger strike earlier this week after she said that she was the target of “high tech bullying” from the military and prison officials.
Manning is currently serving a 35-year sentence after she disclosed sensitive military information to WikiLeaks in 2010. During the trial, Manning became a transgender woman and was officially sentenced in 2013. She proceeded to sue the government for access to hormone therapy drugs in order to allow her to complete her transformation.
“It has now been more than four years since I was first diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition that I have struggled with my entire life,” Manning wrote in 2014. “I do not believe I will be able to survive another year or two — let alone twenty to thirty years — without treatment.”
Manning was eventually approved for hormone therapy treatment in 2015, but continues to struggle with the rules of a prison. Her doctor recommended that she grow out her hair, a request that was denied by the prison.
In July, Manning attempted suicide, but was unsuccessful. While recovering at a barracks in Fort Levenworth, Kansas, Manning received a letter that explained she could face solitary confinement for her suicide attempt.
Now, Manning has taken her fate into her own hands and has started a hunger strike, asking the Army to cease “the constant, deliberate and overzealous administrative scrutiny by prison and military officials” and to allow her to receive the full treatment as recommended by her doctor.
“I need help,” Manning wrote in a statement. “I am not getting any. I have asked for help time and time again for six years and through five separate confinement locations. My request has only been ignored, delayed, mocked, given trinkets and lip service by the prison, the military, and this administration. … I was driven to suicide by the lack of care for my gender dysphoria that I have been desperate for. I didn’t get any. I still haven’t gotten any.”
Manning said on Friday that the hunger strike would continue until she is “given minimum standards of dignity, respect, and humanity.”
“Until I am shown dignity and respect as a human again, I shall endure this pain before me,” her statement reads. “I am prepared for this mentally and emotionally. I expect that this ordeal will last for a long time. Quite possibly until my permanent incapacitation or death. I am ready for this.”
https://amazingreveal.com/blog/2016/09/10/i-need-help-im-not-getting-any-chelsea-manning-goes-on-hunger-strike-over-bullying-by-prison/
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