The Adoration of Chelsea Manning

Writes James Kirchick:

More troubling than this fawning from avowed enemies of the American “security state” is Ms. Manning’s embrace by large swaths of the LGBT community. At the New York City Pride March in June, thousands cheered as Ms. Manning sat atop the American Civil Liberties Union float. While in prison, she had repeatedly been named honorary grand marshal of San Francisco’s gay pride celebration. She has also been the subject of constant, adulatory coverage in gay media.

Celebrating Chelsea Manning just a few years after gay and transgender people were permitted to serve openly in the military discredits the LGBT cause. Throughout most of the 20th century, homosexuality was associated with treason and used as a basis for purging gay people from government jobs, denying them security clearances and restricting their service in the armed forces. The decision by Ms. Manning’s defense team to argue that untreated gender dysphoria was a factor in her decision to leak classified information unwittingly aids those who say that LGBT people cannot be trusted in sensitive government jobs. And it dishonors the LGBT people who have served in the military throughout history without betraying their country.

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7 Comments for “The Adoration of Chelsea Manning”

  1. posted by Jorge on

    “The decision by Ms. Manning’s defense team to argue that untreated gender dysphoria was a factor in her decision to leak classified information unwittingly aids those who say that LGBT people cannot be trusted in sensitive government jobs.”

    Mental cases probably shouldn’t be, though the ADA doesn’t allow anyone to act on that easily. Transgender is not a mental illness.

    Anyway, it’s useful to me for entirely unrelated reasons to concede that Manning was a political prisoner (well, at least the military forbade her transition for a time), a folk hero, and someone whose demographic category is worth promoting as a category of political self-interest. Once that door is opened, there is hell to pay. We saw that last week.

    And I do love making the left pay for its hypocrisy.

    “The cognitive dissonance required of L.G.B.T. activists in celebrating Ms. Manning while denouncing Donald Trump’s transgender military ban is considerable”

    That’s a little like saying there’s cognitive dissonance in celebrating Mr. Miranda while denouncing rape and kidnapping.

  2. posted by David Bauler on

    Well, quite a few progressive didnt drink the kool-aid on this one. but, its suits the right-wing alt-reality spin cycle to suggest otherwise.

  3. posted by David Bauler on

    Also — for consistency sake — quite a few conservatives and right-libertarians were more then eager to view Edward Snowden as a hero, mainly (I suspect) because what he leaked classified information when President Obama was in the White House.

    I suspect that quite a bit of the desire to attack Manning — from conservatives and members of the libertarian right — is because a Republican is in the White House and the attacks help to – somehow – shield the President from his stupid policies.

    It would be stupid to hold up Snowden or Manning as evidence of gender policies in the armed forces . The policies for women, men or transgender Americans should be more then just another excuse for partisan bashing.

    Personally, I never looked at Snowden or Manning as heroes.

  4. posted by JohnInCA on

    I’m confused. Since when is pointing out real consequences of a Catch-22 support for continuing it?

    That’s bad logic 101.

  5. posted by David Bauler on

    cough, cough Edward Snowden..
    .

  6. posted by Rex on

    Ever notice how the guys who become faux girls all seem to celebrate the old school femininity (glamour, lipstick, etc..) that the feminists seem to hate and think is just imposed by the “patriarchy”. Seems to me it’s just an extreme extension of the drag queens of my youth. A cut off dick will never make you a real woman no matter how much “support” you get and vice versa for the trans women. As a libertarian though, I don’t care what illusion you want to live in as long as you don’t try to force me to live there with you or pay for it. 2 + 2 does not equal five!

    • posted by JohnInCA on

      “I don’t care […]”
      If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t make a point of being insulting and condescending.

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