Chelsea Manning Quotes
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The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members.
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Visibility is not equality.
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I don't believe that Freedom of Information laws, which have arbitrary time periods or broad blanket exemptions, meet the level of transparency that society needs today.
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Even if I didn't have the support that I have, I would still be fighting the same fights, and I would still be the same person that I am today.
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If an organization produces a document, it should be made public as soon as possible.
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I think that the next two generations of Americans will be grappling with the very real specter of finding themselves living in a new and bizarre kind of digital totalitarian state - one that looks and feels democratic on the surface, but has a fierce undercurrent of fear and technologically enforced fascism any time you step out of line. I really hope this isn't the case, but it looks really bad right now, doesn't it?
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It can be so difficult to get people to think about systemic institutional problems. It is easier just to see the actions of one or two people and say, "That's wrong!"
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Anxiety, depression, and suicide don't discriminate based on how much money you have - though it might make it easier for you to get help.
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I regret if my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States. It was never my intent to hurt anyone. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others.
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I am merely asking for a first chance to live my life outside the [U.S. Disciplinary Barracks] as the person I was born to be.
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I want people to see the truth... regardless of who they are... because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.
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As Iraq erupts in civil war and America again contemplates intervention, that unfinished business should give new urgency to the question of how the United States military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan.
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The press and free speech landscape has totally changed. There is far less news reporting today. Instead, we have this endless stream of - largely meaningless and speculative - analysis by sideline commentators and self-proclaimed "experts."
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I have served a sufficiently long sentence. I am not asking for a pardon of my conviction.
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I think the increased ubiquity of the internet and networked computing in general allowed me to have some tether no matter where I was geographically. I could log in to a computer from anywhere in the world and access the same information and the same people. It allowed me to transcend the physical differences.
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I want people to see the truth.
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It's not my goal to be a leader or spokesperson, or anything like that.
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I don't think that I'm embracing any kind of leadership for transparency or trans advocacy.
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There are still many homeless trans folk wandering the streets. They are still harassed on the street by bystanders and police officers. We still face many administrative hurdles in every aspect of our lives. If anything, things are actually getting harder for us, because now there are people who are using our visibility as an excuse to say that we are already receiving fair and honest treatment, when the reality is that we are still in bad shape as a community.
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There are very few distinctions between el bueno and el malo en la prisión militar. Instead of the good and the bad, there is the boring and la repetición - the repetitive. The routine is as endless as it is numbing.
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Donations to my legal defense fund really help, and I think keeping me motivated and spreading the message are also very important.
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I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible.
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I believe that the trans movement is at a crossroads. We have achieved an unprecedented level of visibility in the last couple of years. However, that's not the same thing as equality.
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Day-to-day life is as simple as it is routine - though my days are often long and very busy.
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I wanted the American public to know that not everyone in Iraq and Afghanistan were targets that needed to be neutralized, but rather people who were struggling to live in the pressure cooker environment of what we call asymmetric warfare.
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I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility).
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I am really passionate about transparency and trans rights issues, so I embrace these opportunities to speak. I try to stay in touch with those who are prominent in both the trans and transparency movements, but more often than not, I am speaking out on a particular issue on my own. I certainly hope that people listen to me and think about these issues. But regardless of whether I had a public venue to speak in, I would still be passionate about them.
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I can only ask of those who care about me and the issues in my case to support me and spread the word about what is going on.
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While being tossed around the world from place to place as a teenager, I wasn't really tethered to any place or anyone.
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There are just too many opportunities - and an increasing number of them - to hide systemic, institutional wrongdoing behind legal veils, legal theories, and arbitrary exemptions. I hope that we can start to chip away at this, but it sure looks like society is still sliding in the opposite direction.
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