![\"Chelsea](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/57c194ba9b4712be34160a911\/images\/e62a7319-e704-44da-aa33-7fb525fd1103.jpg\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\nThe video showed U.S. troops coldly gunning down ten Iraqi civilians, including children, journalists and adult civilians who attempted to rescue those hit during the initial attack. <\/p>\n
No U.S. military personnel were disciplined for the unprovoked attack, but for the release of this video and numerous other embarrassing documents, Chelsea Manning has \u201cserved more time behind bars than any other whistleblower in history,\u201d according to a recent article in The New Republic.<\/em> \u201cI urge all who support the rights of our LGBTQ community to support Chelsea Manning\u2019s appeal to President Obama to commute her sentence to time served.\u201d<\/strong> Originally posted December 12, 2016 Chelsea Manning is best known for her release to Wikileaks of the notorious \u201ccollateral murder video.\u201d The video showed U.S. troops coldly gunning down ten Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,147],"tags":[148,67],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-war","category-whistleblowers","tag-chelsea-manning","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayliberation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nAmong the documents released by Manning that proved deeply embarrassing to the Obama and former George W. Bush administrations, were State Department cables showing that President Obama\u2019s ambassador to Honduras had advance knowledge of the then-impending 2009 military coup against Honduras\u2019s democratically elected president, Manuel Zalaya. Zalaya had implemented policies such as a minimum wage that were popular among the poor, but angered that country\u2019s wealthy oligarchs.
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\nIn the wake of the coup, the new regime and its wealthy allies slaughtered numerous activists from all sectors, including dozens of LGBTQs. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played the lead role in ending the coup regime\u2019s diplomatic isolation, and the Obama administration refused to follow the Foreign Assistance Act, which bans military assistance to regimes installed by military coups.
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\nOther documents released by Manning via Wikileaks showed the Bush and Obama administrations\u2019 close ties to oligarchs in Tunisia, information which helped spark the 2010 \u201cArab Spring,\u201d a series of revolts against dictators in that country and several other countries around the Middle East.
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\nBecause her revelations embarrassed both leading Democrats and Republicans alike, most wealthy LGBT non-profits have refused to speak out in defense of Chelsea Manning, even though she is arguably the most impactful LGBTQ activist of our generation. It is to their eternal shame that the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign and numerous other wealthy NGOs value their ties to the Democratic Party over solidarity with a courageous transgender sister who has sacrificed so much.
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\nAccording to The New Republic, <\/em>Manning was \u201cheld in solitary confinement for 11 months before her trial<\/a>, which she likened to torture<\/a>; and it took Army officials nearly 18 months<\/a> after she sought treatment for gender dysphoria to approve her for hormone treatments, but she is still required to conform to male military dress standards.\u201d President-Elect Trump has vowed to erase all protections for transgender military personnel, including for those like Chelsea who are incarcerated.
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\n\u201cThe end of presidencies is a traditional time for pardons, and so for several years to come, the next few weeks is Chelsea Manning\u2019s best bid to finally win her freedom,\u201d said long-time Chicago transgender activist June LaTrobe.<\/p>\n
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\nA petition to President Obama to commute Manning\u2019s sentence can be found here:https:\/\/petitions.whitehouse.gov\/petition\/commute-chelsea-mannings-sentence-time-served-1<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"