Army doctor denies official recognition of Chelsea Manning gender transition

Despite gender reassignment procedures, Chelsea Manning will remain a man in the eyes of the US Army after it denied a request from the jailed whistleblower to her prison psychologist to recommend her gender be officially changed.

A court filing from Manning’s legal team said that prison psychologist Dr. Ellen Galloway denied Manning’s request to have her military records changed to reflect her gender transition. Her attorneys say that officially changing Manning’s gender is barred until she is either released or receives gender reassignment surgery, CBS News reported.

When Manning began serving her 35-year prison sentence for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, she entered the prison as Bradley Edward Manning. In the three years since, she has undertaken gender reassignment procedures to live her life as a woman. In order to do so, she requested that her gender be changed on her Army employee-benefits file, because she has "achieved stability in her female gender,” Reuters reported.

Dr. Galloway declined to comment on why Manning’s request was denied. However, the lawsuit filed by her legal team seeks for to get her better care for her gender dysphoria, such as the ability for her to grow her hair into a more traditionally female appearance.

Difficulties with gender dysphoria have plagued Manning, who said it caused her to join the Army to prove her masculinity. Since being imprisoned for leaking 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks, Manning has attempted suicide twice.

The first attempt she blamed on the inability to receive quality treatment for her gender dysphoria, while the second was, according to her, the result of being in solitary confinement as punishment for her first attempt.