A day after he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified military information, Pfc. Bradley Manning announced he plans to begin a gender transition and live the rest of his life as a woman. “I want everyone to know the real me,” he said in a statement read on NBC’s Today show Thursday. “I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way I feel and have felt since childhood, I plan to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible.” Manning requested that the media use his new female name.
