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Chelsea Manning, the transgender soldier released from military prison this week after
serving seven years for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, posted her first
post-prison photo on social media Thursday.
“Okay, so here I am everyone!!” she tweeted beneath a photo showing her wearing red
lipstick and sporting a black top cut deeply in a V in the front.
Documentary filmmaker Tim Travers Hawkins shot the portrait photo, the ACLU told
NBC News. Hawkins is shooting a documentary called “XY Chelsea” about Manning’s
adjustment to life after prison.
Manning was freed from Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas on Wednesday
after serving just seven years of her 35-year sentence. Video provided by Newsy
Newslook
The photo, shared on Twitter and Instagram, was in striking contrast to the last widely
circulated picture of Manning, a grainy black-and-white shot provided by the U.S. Army.
Manning, now 29, entered Fort Leavenworth military prison as a man named Bradley
Manning. She will remain an active-duty, unpaid soldier, eligible for health care and
other benefits while her court-martial conviction remains under appeal, according to
the Army. She will also have access to commissaries and military exchanges, but will
not be paid.
Manning was convicted of leaking more than 700,000 classified documents, including
battlefield reports on Iraq and Afghanistan and State Department cables, while working
as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. She said the leaks were intended to expose
wrongdoing.
Manning was arrested outside a U.S. Army base in Iraq in May 2010. Her 2013
sentence was commuted in the final days of the Obama administration, a move that
infuriated some in the military as well as President Trump. She would have been
eligible for parole in six years.
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