Pfc. Manning: I want to live as a woman

Jim Michaels, Tom Vanden Brook and Carolyn Pesce | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption What's next for Bradley Manning? | USA NOW video Carly Mallenbaum hosts USA NOW for August 22, 2013, with updates on convicted soldier Bradley Manning.

Manning%2C 25%2C was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday for leaking classified documents

He says he wants to be called %22Chelsea%22

Manning%27s defense team suggested his struggles with gender identity as a gay soldier were a factor in his decision to leak

Bradley Manning, the Army private sentenced to 35 years in military prison for leaking classified documents, revealed Thursday he intends to live out the remainder of his life as a woman.

"I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female," the Army private wrote in a statement read by his attorney Thursday on NBC's Today show. "Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition."

Manning, 25, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday after having been found guilty of 20 charges ranging from espionage to theft for leaking more than 700,000 documents to the WikiLeaks website while working in Iraq in 2010.

"I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility)," he continued in the statement posted on the show's website. "I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back."

Manning signed the letter "Chelsea E. Manning."

Manning lawyer David Coombs told Today he hopes the prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, will provide hormone therapy.

"If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure they are forced to do so," Coombs said.

The Army does not does not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery for gender identity disorder, said George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. Inmates are considered soldiers and have access to mental health professionals, including a psychiatrist, psychologists and social workers.

Phil Cave, a former military lawyer now in private practice, agreed. "They would not have those types of resources available," he said.

It would also raise concerns about ensuring Manning's safety while in confinement, he said.

While the Army does not provide hormone therapy or gender-reassignment surgery, there are different standards for inmates in federal prisons, legal experts said.

Denying therapy or surgery "is the initial reaction most prisons have had. … It's regularly been rejected by courts because the courts say the Constitution requires prisoners be given adequate care," said Neal Minahan, a Boston attorney who has worked on similar cases.

"You can't just have a blanket ban on a medical procedures without some doctor involvement," Minahan said. "The courts have said you cannot have a blanket ban on hormone treatment. It has to be on a case-by-case basis and there has to be doctor involvement."

"It is illegal for the Department of the Army to deny medical treatment to a prisoner," said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

If Manning receives a diagnosis from a doctor that he has a gender disorder, he'll be entitled to treatment in prison, Keisling said.

"It's really clear cut," Keisling said. "If a person gets diabetes, you treat the diabetes. If you break a leg, that gets treated. If you have schizophrenia, that gets treated. It doesn't matter if it is mental or physical health problem."

During his trial, Manning's defense team suggested his struggles with gender identity as a gay soldier were a factor in his decision to leak. His attorneys presented an e-mail to a former supervisor from April 2010 in which he said he was transgender and joined the Army to "get rid of it."

The e-mail, which had the subject line "My Problem," also included a photo of Manning in which he is wearing a blonde wig and lipstick. During Manning's nine-month detainment at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., following his arrest in 2010, he sent two letters to his counselor using the name "Breanna,'' Master Sgt. Craig Blenis testified at his trial.

In the statement read on Today, Manning thanked his supporters. "I want to thank everybody who has supported me over the last three years," he wrote. "Throughout this long ordeal, your letters of support and encouragement have helped keep me strong."