"Chelsea Manning, the US army soldier serving 35 years in prison for leaking a huge stash of state secrets, has won a small but significant victory in her bid to transition to living as a woman.

Manning has taken on the might of the US military, challenging its ongoing refusal to refer to her as a woman, and won. A court order from the US army court of criminal appeals instructs the military to refer to the soldier in all future official correspondence either using the gender neutral “Private First Class Manning” or employing the feminine pronoun.

As a result, the military is henceforth forbidden from referring to Manning as a man.

The court order marks another advance towards Manning’s goal of gender transition which she has had to fight every step of the way in the face of an intransigent army hierarchy. Last month, Manning, who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, was allowed to start hormone treatment, having struggled for years to convince her jailers to grant her the medical care that had been indicated.

The treatment marked a breakthrough for the US military, which continues to ban transgender individuals from service."

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2015/03/06/co...e/?subscriber=1