Bradley Manning now legally Chelsea Manning

On Wednesday, a judge in Kansas granted a legal name change to Bradley Manning, the former Army soldier who in 2013 was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to Wikileaks. Manning is now Chelsea Elizabeth Manning, and will soon be issued a new birth certificate.

During her sentencing last August, Manning announced that she is now living as a woman. However, according to The Associated Press, the name change "does not compel the military to treat the soldier previously known as Bradley Edward Manning as a woman." Manning will not be moved to a women's unit from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth, nor will she be given the gender counseling or hormone treatments she has requested.

In a statement, Manning said, "Hopefully today's name change, while so meaningful to me personally, can also raise awareness of the fact that we (transgender) people exist everywhere in America today, and that we must jump through hurdles every day just for being who we are."

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