KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning is revealing her new look as a woman, after being freed from a Kansas military prison and a 35-year sentence for leaking classified materials.

The transgender soldier formerly known as Bradley Manning took to Twitter and Instagram Thursday, posting a portrait photograph of her with short-cropped hair, bright red lipstick and a dark outfit with a plunging neckline.

The 29-year-old Oklahoma native included the caption, “Okay, so here I am everyone!!”

Manning was released early Wednesday from confinement at Kansas’ Fort Leavenworth, after having served seven years behind bars for giving classified materials to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

Manning, a former intelligence analyst in Iraq, has acknowledged leaking the materials, including more than 700,000 military and State Department documents, along with battlefield video. Manning said she wanted to expose what she considered to be the U.S. military’s disregard of the effects of war on civilians and that she released information that she didn’t believe would harm the U.S.

Critics said the leaks laid bare some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and endangered information sources, prompting the State Department to help some of those people move to protect their safety. Several ambassadors were recalled, expelled or reassigned.


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