Chelsea Manning has been on my mind a lot lately, but not for reasons most cisgender folks are learning about today.
Some of us in the trans community have known that Manning is trans for quite some time. To us, she was known as Breanna. Today, we welcome and celebrate her as Chelsea. We empathize with her pain in ways a cisgender person will never be able to truly understand.
Chelsea Manning coming out as a trans woman today was a bittersweet moment for many trans folks. I, for one, admire her bravery. I also worry about her safety and feel frustration and anger that she is facing 35 years of incarceration in a men’s prison with no access to HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy).
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for trans women to be incarcerated in men’s prisons in the United States and Canada. Recognition of trans women is inconsistent. Sometimes it depends on the state, other times it depends on the prisoner’s surgical status.
Chelsea Manning, however, will be serving her 35-year sentence at the military prison in Ft. Leavenworth.
“The Army does not provide hormone therapy (HRT) or sex-reassignment surgery (SRS) for gender identity disorder,” said Ft. Leavenworth spokeswoman Kimberly Lewis.
The cruelty of this makes my heart sink. She is being denied basic help and treatment that would help her immensely.
View Larger Map
Being trans is recognized as a legitimate ‘condition,’ and many professional psychiatric organizations acknowledge that gender dysphoria can be treated and eased with HRT and SRS/GRS, including the American Psychiatric Association and the DSM-IV.
As a trans woman, I can attest to the benefits of HRT. Yes, they change your body and so sometimes help trans folks with feelings of gender dysphoria. But the emotional and psychological benefits of HRT can not be understated. From my personal experience as a trans woman who has suffered from depression and anxiety, HRT was more helpful to me in that area than any other medication I took.
The army, in denying Chelsea Manning HRT, is clearly disregarding her mental health. But it is also a symptom of a much larger problem: Institutional transphobia.
For most binary trans folks who want to transition, we need to go through a gatekeeping process to access HRT + SRS/GRS. This means we have to convince cisgender doctors we are really trans and need HRT. This typically requires demonstrating real-life experience, such as living, working and studying full time in the gender role we desire to transition to.
I wonder how exactly Chelsea Manning will be able to do so in a military prison housing men. The reality is she can’t, even if the military did provide HRT or surgery for trans folks.
Chelsea Manning is not just being incarcerated, she is being tortured and punished cruelly, not just by a crushing jail sentence but also by the government’s refusal to recognize her trans status and to help with her ‘condition’ by providing HRT, which is proven to be effective treatment for gender dysphoria.
Also worth noting is that it is very common for trans women to join the military when they are young. There are many reasons, from denial of being trans, running away from transgender feelings, confusion, access to education funds, internalized transphobia, all the way to shame and guilt for over transgender feelings.
As a trans woman, I can attest to the benefits of hormone replacement therapy.
I was 32 when I came out as trans. I was a never a ‘manly’ man when I was pretending to be a man but, at times, I certainly did behave in how I thought men should behave. I have empathy and compassion for trans women who live this way to an extreme, or keep up the act. I have been there myself.
I knew I was trans for at least a decade before I came out as trans. I was uncomfortable in my gender label as boy/man for as long as I can remember. I took so long to finally come out as trans because I was afraid of how the world would treat me, how my family would react, my employment, not being able to find a partner and a hundred other reasons.
Trans people come out at different points in their lives for a multitude of reasons. Some of us have supportive and open-minded families, some of us don’t. Some trans people never come out, again for multitude of reasons. When trans people choose to come out is irrelevant. We should never judge a trans person or make assumptions about them because of when they chose to come out.
This brings me to how the media has responded to chelsea Manning coming out as trans, as well as the general public on social media.
Quite frankly, it is has been pretty terrible and disrespectful. FOX News, the BBC and the New York Times are just a few examples of mainstream media misgendering Chelsea Manning today.
When a trans woman comes out and tells you that this is her name and these are her pronouns, everyone should use that name and those pronouns. To do otherwise is not only disrespectful but also cissexist. Using her old name, what many of us in the trans community refer to as a “dead name,” is beyond disrespectful. It is spiteful and cruel.
Now, many of you might be wondering what cissexism is, maybe even wondering what cis and cisgender means?
Cis is Latin for “on the same side” and trans means “on the other side” or “across”. Or simply put, if you are not transgender you are cisgender.
Cissexism is when the values and norms of cisgender people are seen as the norm and transgender people’s experiences and lives are devalued, held in contempt, mocked and seen as illegitimate.
Cissexism is what is happening in the media when incorrect pronouns are used for trans people such as Manning, when dead names are used and the identity and lives of trans are ridiculed and judged. It is transphobia when the media suggests that trans people like manning are ‘mentally unstable’ or when they suggest Chelsea is pretending to be trans to avoid a mens prison.
Sophia Banks is a Toronto-based photographer, you can visit her website at http://www.sophiabanksphoto.com/