For #LGBThistorymonth I will be posting an #lgbtq #womaninhistory every day. Today is Chelsea Manning, a former US soldier, activist and whistleblower.

In 2010, Manning began leaking documents to Wikileaks which became known as “the Iraq War logs”. Around the same time, she disclosed to her supervisor her wish to transition.

Three years later, she was convicted of violations of the Espionage Act and sentenced to 35 years . While in prison, Manning began to transition. Her experience highlighted the serious abuses that transgender people suffer daily in prisons and jails in the US. She struggled to gain access to hormones and to be known as Chelsea, and shared her perspectives on gender identity, imprisonment and political affairs via a series of columns written for The Guardian.

In 2017, President Obama commuted her sentence.