Manning, Chelsea

Born on December 17, 1987, in Crescent, Oklahoma, Chelsea Manning first made the national news in 2010 after her arrest in the high-profile “WikiLeaks” case. This entry explores the legal history of her case and its impact on the rights of trans prisoners and military personnel.

Private First Class Manning, an Army intelligence analyst who began active duty in 2007, was charged with 22 counts relating to the unauthorized possession and distribution of more than [Page 499]720,000 military and diplomatic documents, mostly about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Collectively, this was the largest leak of classified records in U.S. history. Among the items leaked was video footage entitled “Collateral Murder,” depicting an American Apache helicopter killing 12 unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007. Manning told ...