![\"Chelsea](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.towleroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/manning.jpeg?resize=740%2C419\")
<\/p>\nChelsea Manning Speaks Out in First Interview Since Release: WATCH<\/b><\/p>\n
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Convicted Wikileaker Chelsea Manning gave the first interview since her sentence was commuted by President Obama and she was freed\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n
Mediaite reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n After she was sentenced, Manning (birth name Bradley) came out as transgender, and requested hormone treatments, which was originally denied by the military, leading to several suicide attempts and stints in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n On her fight for hormone treatments, Manning said \u201cit\u2019s literally what keeps me alive,\u201d adding \u201cit keeps me from feeling like I\u2019m in the wrong body.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI used to get these horrible feelings, like I just wanted to rip my body apart.\u201d<\/p>\n Chang asked the newly freed soldier what she would say to Obama if she had the chance, at which point Manning welled-up, saying \u201cthank you. I was given a chance, that\u2019s all I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s all I asked for, was a chance, that\u2019s it,\u201d Manning said. \u201cAnd this is my chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Chang noted after the interview that while Manning\u2019s sentence was commuted, she was not pardoned, and \u201cthe seven years she served was already longer than any other leaker in U.S. history.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The post Chelsea Manning Speaks Out in First Interview Since Release: WATCH<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n