A judge in Leavenworth, Kansas, will have to look over a petition to get Chelsea Manning's name changed legally. Manning is serving a 35 year sentence for leaking over 700,000 classified military documents to the anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks. The former intelligence analyst has not actually been discharged from the military - you can't be while serving jail time, although the reason for Manning's discharge would've originated with her gender dysphoria, not the actual crime itself. Currently, she resides in a maximum security prison for men in Leavenworth, Kansas. Manning says changing her name from Bradley Edward Manning to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning will be the first step in changing her military records.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/23/judge-to-mull-chelsea-manning-name-change-request/8042201/
I think the army is pretty transphobic. You can't serve in the army if you have gender dysphoria! I mean seriously, you'd think there'd be a proper reason like if one has diabetes and can't risk facing a diabetic episode on the field, but no, if you feel like you were assigned the wrong gender at birth, then you automatically can't serve in the army. I hope Chelsea gets her name legally changed. It may not change how the military overall treats her (they still use he/him/his pronouns to refer to her) but it would be a small victory for Chelsea.
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