Espionage Prisoner Is Granted Gender Transition Surgery

Chelsea Manning is the U.S. soldier who is serving 35 years in prison for passing classified leaks to Wikileaks.

The former intelligence analyst in Iraq had provided more than 700,000 documents, videos, and diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to the anti-secrecy group Wikileaks. In the case ranked as the biggest breach of classified materials in all of the United States’ history, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013.

28 year old Manning was born a mae but identifies as a female. She announced a hunger strike on Friday but ended it on Tuesday when the Army said she would be allowed to receive gender transition surgery.

According to a statement made by the ACLU, who represented her, Manning’s treatment will begin with the surgery that was recommended by her psychologist in April.

No transgender inmate has ever before received gender affirming surgical treatment in prison, the ACLU said.

“I am unendingly relieved that the military is finally doing the right thing. I applaud them for that. This is all that I wanted — for them to let me be me,” Manning said in a statement.