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Chicago “Free Bradley Manning” Contingent (photo: ChicagoGeek)
(update below)
In San Francisco, New York and Chicago, support contingents for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistleblower, participated in Sunday’s gay pride parades. Those who marched in contingents aimed to make the LGBT community more aware of Bradley Manning.
Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network and Bradley Manning Support Network Advisory Board member, says he and others in the LGBT community organized a contingent because Manning is a gay man and “we think it is important to stand up for those in our own community who are being victimized.”
The Bradley Manning Support Network finds Manning is “being increasingly hailed by LGBT activists as a hero.” Lieutenant Daniel Choi, an active and well-known gay rights advocate who helped contribute to the movement that ultimately results in the repeal of DADT, recently announced he was “proud to stand by side with Bradley Manning” and on the day of the pride parades tweeted, “I dedicate this Pride to American Hero Private Bradley Manning, our fellow gay freedom fighter currently locked up in Ft. Leavenworth, KS.”
The pride parade in Chicago was one of the first major events for the Chicago chapter of Bradley Manning supporters. Here in Chicago, activists are confronting the fact that many do not know of Manning.
“I thought that we need to do more work in Chicago to make people more aware of Bradley Manning and the fact that he’s been in prison for over a year now and he hasn’t had a trial,” shares Stansfield Smith, an antiwar organizer and someone who has done work to defend twenty-three activists given subpoenas to appear before a grand jury. “He was in solitary confinement and he’s basically being framed up because President Obama’s already said he’s guilty for leaking this information to WikiLeaks. I [feel] some obligation to defend this young guy.”
An organizer in San Francisco, Stephanie Tang, who is with World Can’t Wait and other groups, reports up to a million crowded the city’s Market Street to watch the parade. Around forty to fifty marched in a contingent. Orange and pink Manning stickers were handed out. The contingent was able to get pockets of the crowd to cheer and join chants like “Free Bradley Manning! Stop These Wars!” In some instances, it was clear people didn’t know Manning and the contingent would inform the crowd and then those they were talking to almost always wanted stickers and flyers so they could learn more and perhaps even begin to support him. [Photos of the SF contingent.]
Up to this point, there has been hesitation and division among the LGBT community over whether to support Manning. Thayer suggests this has to do with class and party affiliation.
“[We] have a whole section of leadership of various LGBT organization, which is like leaderships of other minority organizations that try to curry favor with the politicians,” explains Thayer. They are “loathe to do anything controversial.” He believes that can be turned around “once the majority of LGBT people know what Bradley Manning” has allegedly done.
One aspect of the Manning story that carries particular resonance is the abuse he experienced at Quantico. Thayer says what he was subjected to was “very reminiscent of the sexual humiliation that was tinged with homophobia that we saw the US conduct against prisoners in Abu Ghraib and other prisons in that country.” He doesn’t think the sexual humiliation he was subjected to was an accident.
The key for LGBT people (and all other activists) appears to be convincing Americans that what he did was a “signal service.” Thayer recently participated in an illegal pride parade in Moscow, Russia, with LGBT people from the country and Eastern Europe. They all know Bradley Manning’s case unlike many LGBT people in America.
Making Americans aware of how WikiLeaks cables he allegedly released helped contribute to the Arab Spring and communicating to Americans how he has helped to expose the most serious war crimes committed by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan could potentially help grow the community of supporters here in the United States.
*For more, here’s a “This Week in WikiLeaks” podcast I produced that features Stan Smith and Andy Thayer.
Update
Dido Rossi of the Lesbian Bi Trans Queer (LBTQ) in the Global Women’s Strike and Dean Kendall of the Payday Men’s Network have signed on to a letter to the LGBTQ community. The letter calls attention to the silence of LGBT organizations in North America. It declares:
We say “There’s no pride in the slaughter of others!”
We take pride in our LGBTQ sisters and brothers who refuse to be killers, such as gay Filipino/Native-American Stephen Funk, the first US soldier to be convicted and jailed for refusing to fight in Iraq; Mehmet Tarhan, gay Kurdish military refuser in Turkey, whose torture and imprisonment were ended by an international campaign in which grassroots LGBTQ organizations were prominent; and now Bradley Manning.
Similar to Thayer’s comment, the letter points out:
The campaign against the punitive conditions of Bradley’s confinement at Quantico has likewise shone a light on the solitary confinement and other torture endured by many tens of thousands of prisoners, not only but especially in the US. [3] The blueprint for Bradley’s treatment at Quantico, for Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Baghram, is the US gulag of civilian prisons, where most prisoners are people of color, and where especially those perceived as LGBTQ may endure endless sexual violence.
UK Bradley Manning supporters are preparing a contingent for the London Pride parade that will take place on July 2.
Here’s a photo from @payamtorabi of the banner for the upcoming parade:
24 Comments
Bradley Manning is a hero and Obama’s greatest shame and window into who he really is.
Who cares whether or not Manning is gay or not gay? What does that have to do with whether or not he committed a crime?
Manning should be tried. If he committed a crime, he should be properly tried and properly punished. From what I have heard, he gave state secrets to this nation’s enemies, which to me is nothing short of treason. And Manning should be shot for committing treason. But if there is something else in the case, let it be heard. If he is acquitted, then that will be the jury’s verdict.
But to hang this on whether or not Manning is gay is pathetic. Show why that is important to his case, in one form or another, or, please, for God’s sake, get off that. No one should care about someone’s private life.
Committing a crime and breaking the law are not the same thing. Manning is accused of revealing the truth, which is against the law in this Fascist country. Breaking the law is what makes Manning a hero.
Nobody is under any moral obligation to obey the Fascist government and it laws. We only obey because we are afraid.
Whether he committed a crime is an interesting question: his motives appear to have been those of a whistleblower, to let the American public know what its government is actually doing as opposed to what it pretends to do. He sought no money. He did not collaborate with a foreign power, be it a state actor, terrorist group, or ideological cause. He did not attempt to interfere with military operations or cause harm to American soldiers involved in them.
If he were so obviously guilty of a crime, the Oilbomber Administration would have moved to prosecute him by now. Instead, they seem to be taken the “You’ve Fucked With the Empire, So You’ll Sit in Prison and Rot As Long As We Feel Like It” approach.
Does anyone have an update on how Manning is doing?
There’s nothing specific on Manning’s current condition. David Coombs, his lawyer, has not posted anything on Manning’s detention since May. He did recently post the Navy’s response to an Article 138 complaint Manning filed.
Is the general consensus that Coombs is doing a good job? I seem to recall some criticism of him, possibly in here, although that might have been just so much kvetching.
It’s easy to criticize. I don’t see the point. Those who are really concerned should focus on building support for Manning. The more support, the easier it is for Coombs to do his job.
Off course, he is also a hero for US Latinos, Gringos, Blacks and Tribal members of society!
“This nation’s enemies?” Are you talking about the American public?
I’d say that people like Dick Cheney, George Bush, and Obama, are this nation’s enemies. Exposing their dirty secrets makes Manning a hero!
It is not at all clear as to what Manning did or what affect it may have had. The problem for the administration is it wants to prosecute him, yet in doing so will it make the context of his actions visible.
A link to text of the flyer distributed by Chicagoans in the support contingent on Sunday. Also, more pictures.
Who cares whether or not Manning is gay? Hillary Clinton cares, unfortunately. Buried in the recent glowing feature about her in Vanity Fair was her reaction to his sexuality, and it was surprising and disgusting.
Unfortunately, PSB’s Frontline made an issue of Manning being gay.
Here’s the full Vanity Fair feature.
“Hillary told staff that she could not fathom how an army private, Bradley Manning, with psychological problems and a drag-queen boyfriend could single-handedly cause the United States unprecedented embarrassment just by labeling massive downloads as Lady Gaga songs.”
“Manning should be tried. If he committed a crime, he should be *properly tried* and *properly punished*.”
… my emphasis
Hey: I couldn’t agree with you more. You state something accurately, but then you move along quickly to gossip and inuendo and based on what you “heard,” you indicate Manning should be shot.
I also agree with you that I don’t care whether Manning is gay or straight and that it’s not particularly relevant or germaine to this issue of his *presumed innocence* prior to being found either not guilty or guilty at a (hopefully) FAIR trial. I might point out that it *appears* that YOU, at least, presume Manning guilty prior to trial, which, in theory, is not the law of this land.
However, given that the US Pres, Obama, publically declared Manning without a trial of any kind, I am unsurprised to note other citizens rushing to this unfair judgement.
The issue is that NONE of us know whether Manning is innocent or guilty bc the US govt/military has not determined that Manning is deserving of a fair and speedy trial. Manning has been tortured on US soil at Qunatico, and who knows how he is now being treated at Leavenworth.
Unless or until Manning ever *gets* a trial, NO ONE can state conclusively that Manning is either innocent or guilty. That said, the law of the USA presumes citizens to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Something you might want to consider. One never knows whether one may be charged for wrong-doing some day. Might want to be presumed innocent and not *assumed* to be guilty before a trial.
Yes, and that’s probably as good a guess as any as to why this Admin has dragged it’s feet as slooooowly as possible in terms of bringing Manning to trial. All very well for Obama to publically state the Manning is “guilty.” Why, then, is Manning not tried? I conjecture that Obama doesn’t want the context apparent to citizens who might get a real eyeful of the shady dealings and crookedness of the “mighty” USG.
As someone as indicated, it was also brought up during the PBS Frontline hack job on Manning. I thought it was done deliberately to cast more doubt on Manning and to make him “look bad” just bc he was gay. That was my take.
Given how Manning’s gender preference has been used by the PTB to cast mud at him, I feel that we, therefore, have not much choice to rally behind that. And it, therefore, becomes an “issue” of concern for the LGBT community. just my take, of course.
Hilary may want to question WHY it was so easy for Manning to do this, rather than cast aspersions on Manning via such a cheap shot as dissing his gender preferences and alleged possible mental illness issues. It’s lower than a cheap shot but duly noted that Hilary got her nasty mud slinging in Vanity Fair. That was no accident.
So: caveat emptor. Good catch. Good to know what the sleazes at the top are doing to *protect themselves.*
Not to mention the Welsh (of whom his mother is one)!
This is true. If he did what he is alleged to have done, he has benefited all groups and minorities throughout the world.
Good point.
Treason, huh? I’ve got your treason for you. You missed it the first time around, I guess. The treason of lying our young men and women into war with another country that we had been starving and sanctioning to a criminal extent for years and years. The treason of lying about WMD to the American people so they will send their sons and daughters and my brothers and sisters to die and kill. The treason of lying to the American people through the corporate media about what’s going on over there. The treason of using MY tax dollars to kill people and destroy infrastructure while here at home our schools and infrastructure is going to hell. The treason of lying about 9/11 and covering up the investigation. You want me to go on about treason? Because what they’re doing to Manning –who is one of the ones upholding the dignity and integrity of the entire US military as far as I’m concerned—what they’re doing to Manning obviously has people like you sadly tricked.
What the villains do when they are revealed is point to the person who reveals the information, then villifies them, through yellow journalism like the sort recently put out by PBS and all these other jerks who call themselves “journalists” who use the leaks to make money for their papers then jump on the bandwagon to kill the messenger.
Yeah, treason, right. Give me a freaking break already. I am so sick of hearing this. You OK with secretive fascism that demands total allegience to a sick state that lies and kills?
Because that’s what that is. Maybe you really don’t know about Manning’s story. I would strongly encourage you, whoever you are, to do some serious reading and then try, really hard, to wake the hell up.
Manning upheld his oath to defend his country against ALL ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. Don’t you SEE what’s been going on? Do you think these wars are not real? That they are not killing real people while you sit here and blather about your “rules”? God bless him and god bless America, you f’ing twits. Thank god someone did what he did.