Chelsea Manning Quotes

After years of hiding and holding off because of the trial, I finally announced my intent to change my name and transition to living as woman on 22 August 2013 - the day following my sentencing - a personal high point for me, despite my other circumstances.

- Chelsea Manning

Many queer and trans people live - and lived - in our prison and jails, in our homeless shelters, in run-down houses and apartment buildings, and on the corners of every major city. Marriage equality doesn't help them; and the potential loss of momentum for trans/queer rights after this win could well hurt them.

- Chelsea Manning

I came out publicly as transgender and began hormone replacement therapy while in prison. When I was released, however, there was no quantifiable history of me existing as a transwoman. Credit and background checks automatically assumed I was committing fraud.

- Chelsea Manning

Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown out any logically based dissension, it is usually the American soldier that is given the order to carry out some ill-conceived mission.

- Chelsea Manning

Let's protect sensitive sources. Let's protect troop movements. Let's protect nuclear information. Let's not hide missteps. Let's not hide misguided policies. Let's not hide history. Let's not hide who we are and what we are doing.

- Chelsea Manning

Health care is something that prisoners have a right to, you know? They don't get to pick and choose whether or not you get this health care plan and this health care plan. It's provided to you by the prison. The prison has a responsibility to provide you with necessary health care, and trans health care is necessary.

- Chelsea Manning

Any increase in surveillance of marginalized communities for the sake of security theater have expanded the cycle of criminalization that queer people - especially queer people of color - are forced to navigate.

- Chelsea Manning

Though there are plenty of reasons to critique U.S. foreign policy and the way in which the U.S. military enacts it, serving your country has long been a way for economically marginalized Americans to get an economic step up - and could be for trans people as well.

- Chelsea Manning

The insecurity that comes from being behind bars with, at best, imperfect oversight makes us all feel responsible only for ourselves. We end up either docile, apathetic, and unwilling to engage with each other, or hostile, angry, violent, and resentful.

- Chelsea Manning

The one simple lesson to draw from President Obama's legacy: do not start off with a compromise. They won't meet you in the middle. Instead, what we need is an unapologetic progressive leader.

- Chelsea Manning

As outrageously counter-intuitive as this might seem, the most hardened terrorists and criminals are often extremely willing to brag about the terrible things they've done, the unlikely places that they have been hiding, the important people that they know and deal with, and the plans they have been working on for the future.

- Chelsea Manning

Living such an opaque life has forced me never to take transparency, openness, and honesty for granted.

- Chelsea Manning

As a young kid, I spent a lot of time exploring the world around me. I lived a few miles outside of a tiny town in central Oklahoma. I would often run amok though the fields of wheat, the patches of trees, along the railroad tracks, and on red dirt roads.

- Chelsea Manning

The U.S. needs legislation to protect the public's right to free speech and a free press, to protect it from the actions of the executive branch, and to promote the integrity and transparency of the U.S. government.

- Chelsea Manning

Through every struggle that I have been confronted with and have been subjected to - solitary confinement, long legal battles, and physically transitioning to the woman I have always been - I manage not only to survive, but to grow, learn, mature, and thrive as a better, more confident person.

- Chelsea Manning

We are not safe and secure when the government uses us as pawns to perpetrate violence against others. Our safety and security will come when we organize, love, and resist together.

- Chelsea Manning

Having a birthday around the holidays was never easy and, with every successive year, it felt more and more as if celebrating my birthday got thrown into the December holiday mix as an afterthought.

- Chelsea Manning

In the years preceding my imprisonment, I worked as a software programmer, designing and developing web interfaces, secure databases, and communication software; later, I was employed as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army. Throughout each of these jobs, we used different kinds of encryption to keep prying eyes out of information we handled.

- Chelsea Manning

On the night of 4 November 2008, Barack Obama was elected on a platform of 'hope' and 'change.' He was hailed as a 'uniter' in an age of 'dividers.' I experienced a political awakening that night. I watched as the hope that President Obama represented was tempered by the shocking passage of Proposition 8 by a majority of voters in California.

- Chelsea Manning

The one place I never felt at all comfortable in the military was in private circles of conversation. There's a tendency, especially among young men, to objectify and denigrate women behind closed doors.

- Chelsea Manning

There were a lot of points where I would start to come out, face stern resistance and mockery from people I thought were my friends, and then reverse course. I was scared. I don't think I ever said, 'I'm gay,' or, 'I'm trans.' It was more like, 'Is it normal for guys to crossdress a lot?'

- Chelsea Manning

I spent a lot of time denying the idea that I could be gay or trans to myself. From the ages of 14 to 16, I was mostly convinced that I was just going through 'phases.' I ran away mentally, especially at night with access to the Internet and the labyrinth of anonymous communications.

- Chelsea Manning

I disagree with Apple on many things - such as its exclusive use of proprietary software and arbitrary restrictions on users seeking to copy, share, edit, and create software on their devices. However, I strongly feel that defending its users' and customers' right to strong encryption in court is incredibly important.

- Chelsea Manning

Read everything. Ask your own questions. Be your own filter. Nobody is going to look at the world around you and tell you what important things are happening that affect you and the ones you love.

- Chelsea Manning

Counter-insurgency warfare is not a simple thing... it's not as simple as, like, good guys versus bad guys. It is a mess.

- Chelsea Manning

I knew that I was different. I gravitated more toward playing house, but the teachers were always pushing me toward playing the more competitive games with the boys. I spent so much time wondering, 'What's wrong with me? Why can't I fit in?'

- Chelsea Manning

We need to continue to build and support queer and trans communities and end the profiling and criminalization that so many face.

- Chelsea Manning

When I wanted to serve my country, I was forced to hide the most basic and human aspect of my life and my identity from the people to whom I was supposed to be the closest - and with whom I had to trust my life. I also had to hide from myself.

- Chelsea Manning

There is a difference between a consumer - who passively receives the information that they are spoon fed - and a citizen - who engages with society, asks questions, does research, and works towards making a difference in their neighborhood, city, and country.

- Chelsea Manning

While universal suffrage remains an ideal yet to be attained, if you're lucky enough to be able to vote, don't let that privilege go to waste.

- Chelsea Manning

We need to send a powerful message to the world in a unified voice: that we can fight for social justice for everyone, everywhere, and change the world, not just get married. We can continue to build our communities and address the root causes of queer and trans poverty and deaths.

- Chelsea Manning

By December 2009, I had come to terms with my gender identity just as I was deployed to Iraq.

- Chelsea Manning

Shortly after arriving at a makeshift military jail at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, in May 2010, I was placed into the black hole of solitary confinement for the first time.

- Chelsea Manning

There are very few distinctions between el bueno and el malo en la prision militar. Instead of the good and the bad, there is the boring and la repeticion - the repetitive. The routine is as endless as it is numbing.

- Chelsea Manning

We can work to get queer and trans people out of the prisons and jails and off the streets, and to improve our access to housing, education, employment and gender-confirming healthcare.

- Chelsea Manning

Unfortunately, prisons try very hard to make us inhuman and unreal by denying our image, and thus our existence, to the rest of the world.

- Chelsea Manning

Prisons function by isolating those of us who are incarcerated from any means of support other than those charged with keeping us imprisoned: first, they physically isolate us from the outside world and those in it who love us; then they work to divide prisoners from one another by inculcating our distrust in one another.

- Chelsea Manning

You start to forget about the world outside - it's not relevant or relatable anymore. The darkest part of solitary confinement is that you start to forget about cars and jobs and families and weather and politicians - and all the things that make up a society.

- Chelsea Manning

The evidence is overwhelming that it should be deemed as such: solitary confinement in the U.S. is arbitrary, abused, and unnecessary in many situations. It is cruel, degrading, and inhumane and is effectively a 'no touch' torture.

- Chelsea Manning

Our society's dependence on imagery says a lot about our values.

- Chelsea Manning

I do not think that Caitlyn Jenner's transition was easy. Coming out and transitioning as a public figure - even for someone like her - is an extraordinarily difficult task to undertake. I might not agree with her on a couple of points, but I will refuse to say that her transition was easy.

- Chelsea Manning

A doctor, a judge, or a piece of paper shouldn't have the power to tell someone who he or she is. We should all have the absolute and inalienable right to define ourselves, in our own terms and in our own languages, and to be able to express our identity and perspectives without fear of consequences and retribution.

- Chelsea Manning

Freedom used to be something that I dreamed of but never allowed myself to fully imagine.

- Chelsea Manning

In my experience, working as an intelligence analyst with my own pool of sources numbering close to 100, by far the most effective forms of human intelligence collection are rapport-building and direct questioning.

- Chelsea Manning

As a young queer kid growing up, I explored my identity through the Chicago and Washington, D.C., club scene.

- Chelsea Manning

In 2010, the iPhone was only three years old, and many people still didn't see smartphones as the indispensable digital appendages they are today. Seven years later, virtually everything we do causes us to bleed digital information, putting us at the mercy of invisible algorithms that threaten to consume our freedom.

- Chelsea Manning

Being closeted often put me in situations where I couldn't concentrate or even think straight.

- Chelsea Manning

The fight for justice for the transgender community is largely invisible to our fellow citizens, despite the rampant systematic discrimination of trans people - those whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

- Chelsea Manning

I used to get these horrible feelings; like, I just wanted to rip my body apart, and I don't want to have to go through that experience again. It's really, really awful.

- Chelsea Manning

The military is diverse and large, and it's public: it serves a public function; it serves a public duty.

- Chelsea Manning

The real power of mass data collection lies in the hand-tailored algorithms capable of sifting, sorting, and identifying patterns within the data itself. When enough information is collected over time, governments and corporations can use or abuse those patterns to predict future human behavior.

- Chelsea Manning

Transgender folks have been part of the push for LGBT equality from the beginning, and we've spoken with loud and intelligent voices and have found political and personal success and advancement all over the world.

- Chelsea Manning

I've been a huge fan of Marc Jacobs for many, many years, even going back to when I was wearing men's clothing. He captures a kind of simplicity and a kind of beauty that I like - projecting strength through femininity.

- Chelsea Manning

The unique problem for transgender women in prison is that our health and welfare are also the responsibility of those charged with overseeing us.

- Chelsea Manning

We should all be able to live as human beings - and to be recognized as such by the societies we live in.

- Chelsea Manning

I don't consider myself a 'radical.' Radical in American society has, I think, become this buzzword that makes a lot of ideas and discussions seem foreign or new to people - whether for or against them. Is it radical to seek justice? Is it radical to be rescued by love? Is it subversive to be sweet?

- Chelsea Manning

The past will always affect me, and I will keep that in mind while remembering that how it played out is only my starting point, not my final destination.

- Chelsea Manning

I've been a fan of Taylor Swift for years - ever since I heard her song 'Love Story.' I'm also a really big fan of Selena Gomez - I really started listening to her a lot in the months before and during my court martial in 2013.

- Chelsea Manning

There's this idea out there that, had I not been trans, the leaks and stuff would never have happened. But to my mind, those are two completely separate things. Had I been out, I think I still would have been attracted to the military, but I would have been more comfortable and gotten along with people better.

- Chelsea Manning

When I was a kid, I wanted to be in business or politics, like a CEO of a big corporation or a U.S. senator. There were also times I wanted to be an astronaut or a military officer. Yes, there were moments when I thought about doing this as a woman.

- Chelsea Manning

By the time I enrolled in the military at 20, I had spent years in denial about who I really was. I was openly gay and would go through periods of cross-dressing, and had even thought about transitioning, but I was in such complete denial.

- Chelsea Manning

The people who are in the military work very hard, often for not much money, to make their country better and to protect their country. And I have nothing but respect for that.

- Chelsea Manning

As I rebuild my life, I remind myself not to relive the past.

- Chelsea Manning

From my perspective, the world's shaped me more than anything else. It's a feedback loop.

- Chelsea Manning

When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others.

- Chelsea Manning

The U.S. intelligence community is in a very poor position to be trusted with protecting civil liberties while engaging in intelligence work.

- Chelsea Manning

I am not asking for a pardon of my conviction. I understand that the various collateral consequences of the court-martial conviction will stay on my record forever. I am merely asking for a first chance to live my life outside the U.S.D.B. as the person I was born to be.

- Chelsea Manning

Unfortunately, it seems to me that when it comes to issues affecting the trans community, most people who are cisgender - a word describing those people whose gender identity is in alignment with the sex they were assigned at birth - focus too much on the administrative, legal, and medical aspects of trans identity.

- Chelsea Manning

When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail; when you're a skilled intelligence professional, everything looks like a vital source for collection.

- Chelsea Manning

While incarcerated, I had no bank statements, no bills, no credit history. In our interconnected world of big data, I appeared to be no different than a deceased person.

- Chelsea Manning

No one knows my gender more than I do. You do not know my gender better than I do. A doctor doesn't know it better than I do. My parents don't know it better than I do. No one experiences my gender in the way that I experience it.

- Chelsea Manning

I loved being in my sister's room. I really admired her and wore her clothes to play in, played with her dolls, played with her makeup. She had a mirror with settings to see what you would look like in different lighting. I thought that was amazing.

- Chelsea Manning

For eight years, it did not matter how balanced President Obama was. It did not matter how educated he was or how intelligent he was. Nothing was ever good enough for his opponents. It was clear that he could not win. It was clear that, no matter what he did, in their eyes, he could not win.

- Chelsea Manning

I am Chelsea Manning. I am female.

- Chelsea Manning

I think a lot of opportunities would have come easier to me if I had felt more comfortable and confident in my own skin and not terrified of the world around me.

- Chelsea Manning

I began to fear that I was forever going to be living in a hot desert cage, living as and being treated as a male, disappearing from the world into a secret prison, and never facing a public trial.

- Chelsea Manning

Suffrage is not a right afforded to everyone. Rather, voting is a privilege in the United States - and a hard-earned privilege at that.

- Chelsea Manning

The first time I passed as a woman in public was on leave in the U.S. from my deployment to Iraq in February 2010.

- Chelsea Manning

I believe that when the public lacks even the most fundamental access to what its governments and militaries are doing in their names, then they cease to be involved in the act of citizenship.

- Chelsea Manning

Owning my identity... ties into my value of dignity.

- Chelsea Manning

I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie, I think it's safe to say.

- Chelsea Manning

Joy, confidence, and security can't begin until we are able to just be ourselves.

- Chelsea Manning

Privacy is not a luxury in America: it is a right - one that we need to defend in the digital realm as much as in the physical realm.

- Chelsea Manning

The leaders of ISIS are canny strategists with a solid understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the West.

- Chelsea Manning

We need to stop hoping that our systems will right themselves. We need to actually take the reins of government and fix our institutions. We need to save lives by making change at every level.

- Chelsea Manning

I sometimes feel less than empty; I feel non-existent. Still, I endure. I refuse to give up.

- Chelsea Manning

Gender presentation should reflect the person that you are. When you lose control of your gender presentation, you lose an important aspect of your identity and existence.

- Chelsea Manning

Presenting myself and my gender is about my right to exist.

- Chelsea Manning

I had always known that I was 'different.' I didn't really understand it all until I got older. But there was always this foreboding sense something was 'wrong.' I never knew how to talk about it. I just remember feeling terrified about what would happen if someone found out. It was a very lonely feeling.

- Chelsea Manning

Being me is a full-time job.

- Chelsea Manning

Instead of trying to be 'radical,' I just try to be true to myself! Is it radical to be true to yourself? Maybe it is. I don't know, but it just makes sense to me, haha!

- Chelsea Manning

When you're a kid dreaming, anything seems possible.

- Chelsea Manning