by Zoë Pollock
Alexis psychoanalyzes Bradley Manning:
[I]t's not hard to see Manning's private dilemma — his feelings of being an outsider, of being powerless, of being weak — letting him sympathize with the targets of powerful US organizations like the State Department and military. And the solution to his gender identity problem was the same as the one for geopolitics: everything had to come out. Secrets were corrosive at all levels.
In January of 2010, Manning was allegedly in the process of leaking the many, many documents to Julian Assange's organization. At the same time, he was also publicly cross-dressing for a substantial period of time while on leave. … It's incredible to think that as Manning was allegedly passing off the biggest data leak in US government history, he was experimenting with a different kind of transparency and public display of previously secret information.
(Photo disclaimer: I wouldn't necessarily call Manning a hero, but I do think it's a beautiful piece of street art. It's at the corner of Bedford, Lorimer and Nassau, at the Williamsburg-Greenpoint border.)
The Dish 