Chelsea Manning receives approval to start hormone therapy


In a first for the U.S. Army, Chelsea Manning has been approved for hormone therapy to transition to a woman while an inmate at the Army's Fort Leavenworth prison.
In a memo obtained Thursday by USA Today, Col. Erica Nelson, the commandant of Fort Leavenworth, wrote on Feb. 5 that "after carefully considering the recommendation that [hormone treatment] is medically appropriate and necessary, and weighing all associated safety and security risks presented, I approve adding [hormone treatment] to Inmate Manning's treatment plan."
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of sending classified documents to Wikileaks, and will be eligible for parole in seven years. After receiving the sentence, Manning, formerly named Bradley Manning, said she wanted to be known as Chelsea and live as a woman. In September, she sued the Army in federal court for the right to treatments.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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