Zitat des Tages von Chelsea Manning:
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.
There are very few distinctions between el bueno and el malo en la prision militar. Instead of the good and the bad, there is the boring and la repeticion - the repetitive. The routine is as endless as it is numbing.
By December 2009, I had come to terms with my gender identity just as I was deployed to Iraq.
There is a difference between a consumer - who passively receives the information that they are spoon fed - and a citizen - who engages with society, asks questions, does research, and works towards making a difference in their neighborhood, city, and country.
Having a birthday around the holidays was never easy and, with every successive year, it felt more and more as if celebrating my birthday got thrown into the December holiday mix as an afterthought.
Let's protect sensitive sources. Let's protect troop movements. Let's protect nuclear information. Let's not hide missteps. Let's not hide misguided policies. Let's not hide history. Let's not hide who we are and what we are doing.
I used to get these horrible feelings; like, I just wanted to rip my body apart, and I don't want to have to go through that experience again. It's really, really awful.
Gender presentation should reflect the person that you are. When you lose control of your gender presentation, you lose an important aspect of your identity and existence.
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.
The military is diverse and large, and it's public: it serves a public function; it serves a public duty.
We should all be able to live as human beings - and to be recognized as such by the societies we live in.
I love being around people.
I knew that I was different. I gravitated more toward playing house, but the teachers were always pushing me toward playing the more competitive games with the boys. I spent so much time wondering, 'What's wrong with me? Why can't I fit in?'
In 2010, the iPhone was only three years old, and many people still didn't see smartphones as the indispensable digital appendages they are today. Seven years later, virtually everything we do causes us to bleed digital information, putting us at the mercy of invisible algorithms that threaten to consume our freedom.
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.
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.
Privacy is not a luxury in America: it is a right - one that we need to defend in the digital realm as much as in the physical realm.
When I wanted to serve my country, I was forced to hide the most basic and human aspect of my life and my identity from the people to whom I was supposed to be the closest - and with whom I had to trust my life. I also had to hide from myself.
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.
Counter-insurgency warfare is not a simple thing... it's not as simple as, like, good guys versus bad guys. It is a mess.
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.
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.
The U.S. needs legislation to protect the public's right to free speech and a free press, to protect it from the actions of the executive branch, and to promote the integrity and transparency of the U.S. government.
In my experience, working as an intelligence analyst with my own pool of sources numbering close to 100, by far the most effective forms of human intelligence collection are rapport-building and direct questioning.
The fight for justice for the transgender community is largely invisible to our fellow citizens, despite the rampant systematic discrimination of trans people - those whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
I sometimes feel less than empty; I feel non-existent. Still, I endure. I refuse to give up.
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.
When you're a kid dreaming, anything seems possible.
We are not safe and secure when the government uses us as pawns to perpetrate violence against others. Our safety and security will come when we organize, love, and resist together.
As a young queer kid growing up, I explored my identity through the Chicago and Washington, D.C., club scene.
Freedom used to be something that I dreamed of but never allowed myself to fully imagine.
I spent a lot of time denying the idea that I could be gay or trans to myself. From the ages of 14 to 16, I was mostly convinced that I was just going through 'phases.' I ran away mentally, especially at night with access to the Internet and the labyrinth of anonymous communications.
The people who are in the military work very hard, often for not much money, to make their country better and to protect their country. And I have nothing but respect for that.