Chelsea Manning calls for right to be defined as a person not whistleblower after suicide attempt

'When hearing me labelled as a ‘hero’ and a ‘whistleblower,’ I take a deep sigh'

Chelsea Manning is currently serving a 35 year sentence in prison

(AFP/Getty)

Chelsea Manning has argued for the right to be defined as more than a whistleblower, weeks after attempting to take her own life.

Manning was hospitalised earlier in July at the Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas where the transgender US soldier is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking over 700,000 classified documents to Wikileaks.

Her lawyers claimed Manning was cut off from her legal team and family members after her hospitalisation for more than 36 hours.

Manning's legal team later released a statement explaining they had made contact with her and Manning reassured her followers of her health on Twitter. "I am okay," she wrote. "I'm glad to be alive."

In a blog post for Medium titled “Moving On”, Manning asked to be recognised as her real authentic female self instead of being addressed variously in articles as Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, the whistleblower imprisoned over her role in the dissemination of classified information by Wikileaks.

Manning said the attack on an LGBT nightclub in Orlando led her to reflect on her sense of self and identity since being incarcerated. In her essay, she called for the right to be able to define herself outside of the act that has come to be synonymous with her name.

Manning also shared a picture of herself before beginning her transition from male to female and urged others not to identify her simply by her conviction, status, or as a "hero".

“I am tired of being defined by the world through the narrow lens of a single event that happened in my life several years ago,” writes Manning.

“Now my priorities have shifted. I am faced with a more dire reality: That I am tired of being defined by the world, instead of being allowed to define myself.

“In general, I am not fond of sweeping broad-stroked oversimplifications. In this spirit, when hearing me labelled as a ‘hero’ and a ‘whistleblower,’ I take a deep sigh. The bottom line is that I am only human. When I cut my finger turning the page of a book, I bleed like everybody else.”