The Politics of Abandonment: Siding with the State and Heteronormativity Against Chelsea Manning

Chelsea Manning is a hero. She stood up for American values and for the American people when she leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks. Due to her courageous actions, we became aware of a number of issues, from unsavory diplomatic backdoor dealings to war crimes committed by the U.S. military. Yet, when the time came to defend her, the American people failed. They were told by a media that has sided time and time again with the government that Manning was a traitor and that she had endangered the security of the nation and other soldiers (something that was proven false, by the Pentagon no less), the American people turned their back on her. Yet, the worst betrayal came from the LGBT community. We betrayed Manning, we allowed her to be fed to the wolves. It even went so far that other trans people, such as Christine Howey, referred to Manning as a “trans traitor” and stated that it was “disheartening to see the transgender community saddled with another negative image”¹ in the form of Chelsea Manning.

Manning was stigmatized by the LGBT community earlier this year. In May at the San Francisco Pride Parade, plans were made to have Manning nominated as the grand marshal of the parade; however, after “LGBT military groups from outside of San Francisco began to bombard San Francisco Pride’s office with phone calls and emails,”² the Pride board removed her from the list and a press release was released in which it was stated that Manning’s nomination was a “mistake” and “should never have been allowed to happen.”³

There is also something deeper at work here, specifically, an attitude that seeks to conform. It is a mindset that plays out in one’s actions in daily life. It is an attempt to assimilate to the larger culture. To this end, one may even betray members of one’s own community and side with group(s) in the majority culture. In certain communities, it is called “respectability politics”; in the LGBT community, it is called “heteronormativity.” This heteronormativity has become a part of the LGBT community and resulted in the betrayal of Chelsea Manning. It is in this context that Chelsea was betrayed, that the LGBT community sided with the U.S. government, a government that has historically oppressed them, not just in civilian life, but also in the military.

The U.S. Government

Although many were infuriated with Manning for leaking classified information and sided with the government in condemning Manning as a traitor, they failed to realize or acknowledge the fact that the U.S. government has a history of oppressing the LGBT community.

LGBT persecution first came about most prominently after World War II, in the late 1940s. In 1947, the Senate Appropriations subcommittee sent a list of “admitted homosexuals and suspected perverts” to the State Department; in 1950, “a State Department official testified before that subcommittee that 91 ‘sex perverts’ had been allowed to resign in the previous three years, and that some had subsequently been reemployed by other federal agencies.”⁴ This resulted in Republicans attacking President Truman for not only employing gay people, but also a full-scale inquiry led by Clyde Roark Hory (D-NC) to discover why federal employment of gays was unwanted. The committee found that the behavior of homosexuals was criminal and immoral; they lacked emotional stability because “indulgence in acts of sex perversion weakens the moral fiber”; they frequently attempted to seduce normal people, especially the young and impressionable; and they had a “tendency to gather other perverts” around them. Probably most important, homosexuals were seen as security risks. On the one hand, their emotional instability and moral weakness made them “vulnerable to interrogation by a skilled questioner and they seldom refuse to talk about themselves.” On the other hand, “the pervert is easy prey to the blackmailer” (emphasis added).⁵

Thus, gays were seen as a threat to the United States and likely to be traitors due solely to their sexuality. This fear of gays came from the...