To this point I have refrained from writing anything about Chelsea Manning. I just didn't want to get involved with the controversy surrounding what she did. Some people view her as a heroic figure. Others see in her a criminal.
Manning is currently serving a sentence of 35 years at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth. That just happens to be my duty station when I was in the military.
I take no stance on either of those opinions. I just want to point out that transgender people are like everyone else: some of us break laws from time to time…and some of us have behaved heroically. We're just people.
Well, Chelsea is back in the news. She has asked the Leavenworth (KS) County District Court to allow her to legally change her name to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning. She also wants to begin a course of hormone therapy. The name change petition was filed on January 27 and published by the court on March 1.
Officials at the USDB have said that a legal name change would have to be granted before staff will begin referring to her as Chelsea.
Now two military behavioral health specialists diagnosed Manning with gender dysphoria, so Manning's request for hormone replacement therapy would seem to be a logical next step, since that is what the official treatment calls for, if desired by the patient. It is reported that Manning and her lawyer, David Coombs of Providence, RI, will go to court to get that treatment if the military denies her request…which is likely.
Civilian federal prisons are required to provide such treatment, if deemed medically necessary, for inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Unlike in military prisons, the policy also allows inmates who believe they are the wrong gender to dress and live accordingly as part of their individual treatment plans.
But the military has reiterated that it does not provide hormone therapy because Department of Defense policy dictates that transgender soldiers are not allowed to serve. Manning will not be discharged from the military until she is released from prison and has exhausted all of her appeals.
Civilian federal prisons must abide by the 1976 SCOTUS case Estelle v. Gamble in which it was ruled that deliberate indifference to a prisoner's serious medical needs was a violation of the 8th Amendments protection from cruel and unusual punishment. This ruling was backed up by the 1994 ruling in Farmer v. Brennan. Other cases of interest were the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Meriwether v. Faulkner (1987), a federal court in Michigan's ruling in Philips v. the Michigan Department of Corrections (1990), The Ninth District Court of Appeal's ruling in South v. Gomez (2000), a Pennsylvania federal court ruling in Wolfe v. Horn (2001), and the more recent Massachusetts federal court rulings in Kosilek v. Maloney (2002) and Kosilek v. Spencer (2012).
There is more legal discussion at the Legal Solutions Blog.
A hearing on the request for name change is scheduled for April 23 in the fort.
Today the gay and lesbian people are accepted. Their families are welcome where they serve. This is not so for transgender people in any way.
--Alyson Robinson, former OutServe-SLDN executive director, August, 2013
The Williams Institute estimates that around 15,500 transgender personnel are currently serving in the military. A recent Palm Center study concluded that facilitating the transitions of the military's transgender personnel "would place almost no undue burden on the military." The commission estimated that approximately 230 transgender personnel would seek such medical care each year at an average cost of $30,000. The commission also found that hormone treatment in such cases is nearly identical with the healthcare services provided regularly to non-transgender personnel.
The Private Manning Support Group says it will be changing its name to the Chelsea Manning Support Group.