Quotes from Chelsea Manning

The first time I passed as a woman in public was on leave in the U.S. from my deployment to Iraq in February 2010.

When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail; when you're a skilled intelligence professional, everything looks like a vital source for collection.

Transgender folks have been part of the push for LGBT equality from the beginning, and we've spoken with loud and intelligent voices and have found political and personal success and advancement all over the world.

On the night of 4 November 2008, Barack Obama was elected on a platform of 'hope' and 'change.' He was hailed as a 'uniter' in an age of 'dividers.' I experienced a political awakening that night. I watched as the hope that President Obama represented was tempered by the shocking passage of Proposition 8 by a majority of voters in California.

There's this idea out there that, had I not been trans, the leaks and stuff would never have happened. But to my mind, those are two completely separate things. Had I been out, I think I still would have been attracted to the military, but I would have been more comfortable and gotten along with people better.

By the time I enrolled in the military at 20, I had spent years in denial about who I really was. I was openly gay and would go through periods of cross-dressing, and had even thought about transitioning, but I was in such complete denial.

Suffrage is not a right afforded to everyone. Rather, voting is a privilege in the United States - and a hard-earned privilege at that.

A doctor, a judge, or a piece of paper shouldn't have the power to tell someone who he or she is. We should all have the absolute and inalienable right to define ourselves, in our own terms and in our own languages, and to be able to express our identity and perspectives without fear of consequences and retribution.

Counter-insurgency warfare is not a simple thing... it's not as simple as, like, good guys versus bad guys. It is a mess.

I am Chelsea Manning. I am female.

Anxiety, depression, and suicide don't discriminate based on how much money you have - though it might make it easier for you to get help.

While universal suffrage remains an ideal yet to be attained, if you're lucky enough to be able to vote, don't let that privilege go to waste.

Though there are plenty of reasons to critique U.S. foreign policy and the way in which the U.S. military enacts it, serving your country has long been a way for economically marginalized Americans to get an economic step up - and could be for trans people as well.

Any increase in surveillance of marginalized communities for the sake of security theater have expanded the cycle of criminalization that queer people - especially queer people of color - are forced to navigate.

I don't consider myself a 'radical.' Radical in American society has, I think, become this buzzword that makes a lot of ideas and discussions seem foreign or new to people - whether for or against them. Is it radical to seek justice? Is it radical to be rescued by love? Is it subversive to be sweet?

You start to forget about the world outside - it's not relevant or relatable anymore. The darkest part of solitary confinement is that you start to forget about cars and jobs and families and weather and politicians - and all the things that make up a society.

In the years preceding my imprisonment, I worked as a software programmer, designing and developing web interfaces, secure databases, and communication software; later, I was employed as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army. Throughout each of these jobs, we used different kinds of encryption to keep prying eyes out of information we handled.

We need to stop hoping that our systems will right themselves. We need to actually take the reins of government and fix our institutions. We need to save lives by making change at every level.

The unique problem for transgender women in prison is that our health and welfare are also the responsibility of those charged with overseeing us.

Presenting myself and my gender is about my right to exist.

For eight years, it did not matter how balanced President Obama was. It did not matter how educated he was or how intelligent he was. Nothing was ever good enough for his opponents. It was clear that he could not win. It was clear that, no matter what he did, in their eyes, he could not win.

I've been a fan of Taylor Swift for years - ever since I heard her song 'Love Story.' I'm also a really big fan of Selena Gomez - I really started listening to her a lot in the months before and during my court martial in 2013.

Sometimes You Have to Pay a Heavy Price to Live in a Free Society

Prisons function by isolating those of us who are incarcerated from any means of support other than those charged with keeping us imprisoned: first, they physically isolate us from the outside world and those in it who love us; then they work to divide prisoners from one another by inculcating our distrust in one another.