You are here: Home » Featured » Wikileaks’ Manning Is Apparently Gay, May Have Minor Effect On DADT Discussion

Wikileaks’ Manning Is Apparently Gay, May Have Minor Effect On DADT Discussion

08/09/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
How will the revelations of Private First Class Bradley Manning is, likely, gay effect the debate of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Manning, who is behind the leak of a bunch of documents that most people really seem to have cared. Manning downloaded the documents onto a disk while lipsyncing to Lady Gaga. To this, Jon Stewart stated “I believe the obvious question here is how does a soldier sit around lipsyncing to Lady Gaga all day and not run afoul of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. That’s got to be a substitute for telling, no?” Around two years ago, Manning began to visit a man he had fallen in love with. According to the New York Times:

“He finally seemed to have found a place where he fit in, part of a social circle that included politically motivated computer hackers and his boyfriend, a self-described drag queen. So when his military career seemed headed nowhere good, Private Manning, 22, turned increasingly to those friends for moral support. And now some of those friends say they wonder whether his desperation for acceptance — or delusions of grandeur — may have led him to disclose the largest trove of government secrets since the Pentagon Papers.”

While at Tasker Milward school, he was teased because students believed he was gay. Hwould often openly flirt with boys. According to Rowan John, a former classmate of his, “It was probably the worst experience anybody could go through. Being different like me, or Bradley, in the middle of nowhere is like going back in time to the Dark Ages.” John was openly gay in high school.

There are, of course, those who will say that this is proof that gays should not be allowed in the military, but given that it is impossible to keep gays out of the military, the real question is whether or not Manning’s homosexuality may have played into his decision to leak all of these documents. Of course, given that the documents have shown information which appears to have been of little or no interest to the wider public and showed nothing more than that Afghanistan is going badly, one has to wonder if the fame that Manning apparently sought will not be found now.

About Manning being gay, the thing is, it is not necessarily all that much of a surprise, especially for those of us who have seen the Daily Show.  In truth, most people will probably says “who is Private Manning?”

Source