Pfc. Bradley Manning — the former Army intelligence analyst who decided as he was headed to prison for leaking government information to WikiLeaks that he wanted to be a she — heads to court Wednesday to try for a name change to Chelsea.
A Kansas judge is due to hear his petition for a legal name change, The Associated Press reported. Pfc. Manning is currently serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth.
Last August, Pfc. Manning announced he wanted to be called Chelsea Elizabeth Manning instead of Bradley Edward Manning, and to be regarded as a woman. A number of media outlets began to uphold that request, though Pfc. Manning had not undergone any surgical or chemical procedures to alter his gender.
The Army, however, treats Pfc. Manning as a man.
The hearings on Wednesday “are pretty straightforward,” said Steve Crossland, the administrator for the district court, in the AP reported. Nobody filed any opposition to his name change request, he said.
The Army doesn’t have to recognize him as a female just because his name is changed, AP said. For example, he wouldn’t automatically earn a transfer to a prison with a female unit, although the military would have to adjust his paper records to reflect that his official name was changed to Chelsea.
“This potential court action is only a name change and will have no other effect on his current status other than the name in his records,” George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, told AP.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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