Chelsea Manning Supporters Launch GoFundMe Campaign For First Year Out of Prison Living Expenses

With Chelsea Manning set to be released from prison later this spring, supporters of the whistleblower have launched a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to raise $100,000. The initiative’s launch comes less than a month after President Obama commuted all but four months of Manning’s prison sentence. Manning is known for the 2010 leak which revealed  American military and diplomatic activities.

The campaign organizer, Chase Strangio, a longtime friend who describes Manning as a transgender woman and long-time leader in the LGBT community. He revealed:

“For the past seven years, Chelsea has been incarcerated. She survived solitary confinement, systemic denial of health care and years of being separated from her friends and community. Through it all she has remained a steadfast voice for liberty and justice and an inspiration to so many. We now have a chance to show our appreciation for all that she has given us. Following the commutation of her 35 year sentence, Chelsea will head home to Maryland on May 17, 2017 and we, her closest friends and family, are raising money to meet her survival needs.

“The majority of Chelsea’s adult life has been spent under the control of powerful institutions. Upon her release she will need logistical, emotional, and financial support to safely transition into the free world. For the first time in her life, Chelsea will have the opportunity to live freely as her authentic self, to grow her hair, engage with her friends, and build her own networks of love and support. We want her to have the tools to do that and to overcome the years of abuse she has experience in custody.”

Strangio noted that the funds raised during the campaign will go towards Manning’s life expenses, which includes rent, utilities, health care, clothing and other living expenses, for the first year. Since its launch, the initiative has secured more than $25,000 from over 600 supporters.