Born Bradley Edward Manning, the whistleblower claimed to have a female gender identity in 2013 while doing time in prison for disclosing a trove of sensitive documents to WikiLeaks.

Famous whistleblower and 2018 US Senate candidate Chelsea Manning will be the cover star of the 2019 spring issue of the Dazed British style magazine, which will be dedicated to “talking about the global creativity and power of LGBTQIA+ communities”.

According to the media outlet itself, this move was made “in light of the recent news of President Donald Trump's proposed plans to roll back transgender rights in America, and the ongoing attack against trans people in Britain”.

So far, Dazed has revealed only two other cover stars of this so called Infinity Identities issue beside Manning, with LGBT rights activist and transgender model Hunter Schafer and Ariel Nicholson, a 17-year-old transgender "model of the hour", landing the features.

"Throughout this whole week, Dazed Digital will be running a campaign that explores LGBTQIA+ rights more broadly, through the personal and political," the magazine’s website announced.

However, a number of social media users didn’t seem to agree with the magazine’s reasoning or approve of Manning’s appearance.

how are they under threat, I thought there was a big global drive to promote them? — Gifts & Greetings Review (@GreetingsGifts) 12 февраля 2019 г.

Try "American traitor" — because lets face it, rather than hand over documents to a US news outlet e.g. NY Times or Wash Post, they went to Julian-friggin-Assange! No heroism there! — (Mx) Em Jackson 💙💜 (@MxEmJackson1) 12 февраля 2019 г.

​Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning) spent seven years behind bars after blowing the whistle on the United States conducting extrajudicial killings in Iraq and Afghanistan, turning over 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks in 2009 and 2010.

READ MORE: ‘Everything’s Gotten Worse’: Chelsea Manning Slams Worsening Security State

While in prison, Manning released a statement in 2013, claiming to have a female gender identity since childhood and expressing his preference of being known as Chelsea Manning.

Manning's 35-year sentence was commuted by then-US President Barack Obama at the end of his term in January 2017, leaving prison that May.