Quotes by Chelsea Manning - Page 3

I came out publicly as transgender and began hormone replacement therapy while in prison. When I was released, however, there was no quantifiable history of me existing as a transwoman. Credit and background checks automatically assumed I was committing fraud.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Checks
Credit
Fraud
Therapy
Transgender
Assumed
Automatically
Committing
Existing
Publicly
Released
Replacement
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Making A Difference
Neighborhood
Citizen
Consumer
Fed
Passively
Receives
Spoon
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I didn't really have anyone in particular who inspired me or that I found fascinating as a kid. It wasn't until I was in my early twenties that I began to find people - and they were all historic figures - that I began to relate to and find some inspiration in.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Kids
Inspiration
People
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Critique
Foreign Policy
Marginalized
Serving
Economically
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I am not asking for a pardon of my conviction. I understand that the various collateral consequences of the court-martial conviction will stay on my record forever. I am merely asking for a first chance to live my life outside the U.S.D.B. as the person I was born to be.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Collateral
Conviction
Pardon
Merely
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Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown out any logically based dissension, it is usually the American soldier that is given the order to carry out some ill-conceived mission.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Patriotism
Questionable
Soldier
Acts
Cries
Drown
Mission
Logically
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We need to send a powerful message to the world in a unified voice: that we can fight for social justice for everyone, everywhere, and change the world, not just get married. We can continue to build our communities and address the root causes of queer and trans poverty and deaths.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Causes
Social Justice
Unified
Change The World
Deaths
Get Married
Queer
Root
Send
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Labyrinth
Phases
Ran
Ages
Mentally
Anonymous
Communications
Denying
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There were a lot of points where I would start to come out, face stern resistance and mockery from people I thought were my friends, and then reverse course. I was scared. I don't think I ever said, 'I'm gay,' or, 'I'm trans.' It was more like, 'Is it normal for guys to crossdress a lot?'
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Mockery
Resistance
Stern
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I do not think that Caitlyn Jenner's transition was easy. Coming out and transitioning as a public figure - even for someone like her - is an extraordinarily difficult task to undertake. I might not agree with her on a couple of points, but I will refuse to say that her transition was easy.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Difficult Task
Extraordinarily
Public Figure
Task
Transitioning
Undertake
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Balanced
Intelligent
Opponents
President Obama
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Through every struggle that I have been confronted with and have been subjected to - solitary confinement, long legal battles, and physically transitioning to the woman I have always been - I manage not only to survive, but to grow, learn, mature, and thrive as a better, more confident person.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Legal
Confinement
Manage
Mature
Solitary
Solitary Confinement
Thrive
Battles
Confronted
Subjected
Survive
To Survive
Transitioning
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The real power of mass data collection lies in the hand-tailored algorithms capable of sifting, sorting, and identifying patterns within the data itself. When enough information is collected over time, governments and corporations can use or abuse those patterns to predict future human behavior.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Abuse
Capable
Corporations
Data
Human Behavior
Identifying
Mass
Patterns
Real Power
Sorting
Predict
Collected
Governments
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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?
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
American Society
Subversive
Discussions
Seek
Rescued
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There are just too many opportunities - and an increasing number of them - to hide systemic, institutional wrongdoing behind legal veils, legal theories, and arbitrary exemptions. I hope that we can start to chip away at this, but it sure looks like society is still sliding in the opposite direction.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Opportunity
Numbers
Opposites
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I lived a few miles outside of a tiny town in central Oklahoma. I would often run amok though the fields of wheat, the patches of trees, along the railroad tracks, and on red dirt roads. This had a profound effect on my view of the world - vast, open-ended, full of opportunity, and ready for exploration.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Opportunity
Running
Oklahoma
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I had always known that I was 'different.' I didn't really understand it all until I got older. But there was always this foreboding sense something was 'wrong.' I never knew how to talk about it. I just remember feeling terrified about what would happen if someone found out. It was a very lonely feeling.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Lonely
Terrified
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Leaks
Mind Better People
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I think the increased ubiquity of the internet and networked computing in general allowed me to have some tether no matter where I was geographically. I could log in to a computer from anywhere in the world and access the same information and the same people. It allowed me to transcend the physical differences.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Differences
Thinking
Ubiquity
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Many queer and trans people live - and lived - in our prison and jails, in our homeless shelters, in run-down houses and apartment buildings, and on the corners of every major city. Marriage equality doesn't help them; and the potential loss of momentum for trans/queer rights after this win could well hurt them.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Corners
Homeless
Loss
Marriage Equality
Momentum
Buildings
Houses
Jails
Queer
Shelters
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Retribution
Absolute
Languages
Define
He Or She
Inalienable
Inalienable Right
Perspectives
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Unfortunately, it seems to me that when it comes to issues affecting the trans community, most people who are cisgender - a word describing those people whose gender identity is in alignment with the sex they were assigned at birth - focus too much on the administrative, legal, and medical aspects of trans identity.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Legal
Administrative
Alignment
Birth
Describing
Affecting
Aspects
Assigned
Unfortunately
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Causes
Digital
Indispensable
Invisible
Mercy
Bleed
Consume
Threaten
Virtually
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I disagree with Apple on many things - such as its exclusive use of proprietary software and arbitrary restrictions on users seeking to copy, share, edit, and create software on their devices. However, I strongly feel that defending its users' and customers' right to strong encryption in court is incredibly important.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Arbitrary
Devices
Disagree
Encryption
Exclusive
Seeking
Software
Users
Apple
Copy
Defending
Edit
Proprietary
Restrictions
Strongly
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Health care is something that prisoners have a right to, you know? They don't get to pick and choose whether or not you get this health care plan and this health care plan. It's provided to you by the prison. The prison has a responsibility to provide you with necessary health care, and trans health care is necessary.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Health Care
Health Responsibility Care
Pick And Choose
Prisoners
Provided
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Distrust
Function
Outside World
Love Work World
Charged
Imprisoned
Isolate
Prisoners
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As outrageously counter-intuitive as this might seem, the most hardened terrorists and criminals are often extremely willing to brag about the terrible things they've done, the unlikely places that they have been hiding, the important people that they know and deal with, and the plans they have been working on for the future.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Brag
Hardened
Hiding
Plans
Unlikely
Future People Important
Important People
Terrorists
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Awakening
Barack
California
Hope And Change
November
President Obama
Shocking
Voters
Barack Obama
Experienced
Passage
Platform
Proposition
Tempered
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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.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Communication
Army
Databases
Developing
Different Kinds
Employed
Imprisonment
Secure
Software
Designing
Handled
Programmer
Prying
Web
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Disturbingly, the First Amendment, along with the Fourth Amendment - protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures, and requiring warrants - have been the major casualties of the shift in government policy in the last two decades. Unfortunately, I think that the biggest consequences of this tragedy won't be clear until it is far, far too late.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Government
Thinking
Two
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I think that the next two generations of Americans will be grappling with the very real specter of finding themselves living in a new and bizarre kind of digital totalitarian state - one that looks and feels democratic on the surface, but has a fierce undercurrent of fear and technologically enforced fascism any time you step out of line. I really hope this isn't the case, but it looks really bad right now, doesn't it?
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Real
Thinking
Two
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I am really passionate about transparency and trans rights issues, so I embrace these opportunities to speak. I try to stay in touch with those who are prominent in both the trans and transparency movements, but more often than not, I am speaking out on a particular issue on my own. I certainly hope that people listen to me and think about these issues. But regardless of whether I had a public venue to speak in, I would still be passionate about them.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Opportunity
Issues
Thinking
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There are still many homeless trans folk wandering the streets. They are still harassed on the street by bystanders and police officers. We still face many administrative hurdles in every aspect of our lives. If anything, things are actually getting harder for us, because now there are people who are using our visibility as an excuse to say that we are already receiving fair and honest treatment, when the reality is that we are still in bad shape as a community.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Bystanders
People
Reality
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I think that some of today's focus on freedom of information and trans rights have a tendency to focus on the actions of individuals and how they should be regulated by governments. However, I think it's important to remember that it is the institutions themselves - schools, tax collection services, banks, human resources decisions, health departments, police departments, prosecutors, courts, and prisons - where the most devastating and systemic problems occur today. The scale of these problems is simply unimaginable.
Chelsea Manning / Soldier
Rights
School
Thinking
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Chelsea Manning Quotes - Page 3

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