Chelsea Manning, the former Army private convicted of sharing government documents with Wikileaks, has filed to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. Manning, 30, filed to run as a Democrat, according to federal election filings first reported by The Washington Post Saturday. During her time in prison, Manning became a symbol of transgender rights when the LGBTQ community rallied around her when she went on a hunger strike over her gender confirmation treatment. Manning, who was assigned male at birth but identifies as a woman, ended her strike after the Army complied with her request. “Like far too many people in prison, particularly transgender women, Chelsea Manning has had to survive unthinkable violence throughout the seven years of her incarceration,” Chase Strangio, staff attorney with the ACLU, said in a statement following her release from prison.

Source: Huffington Post January 13, 2018 18:56 UTC