National
Protesters gather to support Manning
Gay service member accused in Wikileaks scandal; Quantico demonstration held
Several hundred protesters gathered Sunday at Quantico, where PFC Bradley Manning is being held in connection with the Wikileaks scandal. This photo was taken at an earlier demonstration demanding Manning’s release at the White House. (Photo by Diane Perlman)
There were many memorable images from last Sunday’s protest aimed at calling attention to the plight of a gay service member accused of treason by the federal government, but two images stood out above all others.
The line of riot police, hooded with glass visors and carrying truncheons and heavy shields, standing silent at first, shoulder to shoulder, buffed out with padded body armor, flanked by other riot police with lunging dogs, and other hulking men carrying automatic weapons, and even an armored Humvee, its engine running, and the full line now several hundred strong.
The other image appeared peaceful. A line of demonstrators walking forward, toward the police, linking their arms also, but singing while walking down Virginia Route 1, not carrying weapons but bouquets, to deliver flowers to the foot of the Iwo Jima monument there, the replica statue at the gates of the Quantico Marine Corps Base.
MORE IN THE BLADE: SUPPORTERS WORTY ABOUT TORTURE IN BRADLEY MANNING DETENTION
That’s where PFC Bradley Manning has been held in solitary confinement for eight months in pre-trial detention, waiting for the charges against him to be presented, including one carrying the death penalty. Manning is the accused whistleblower, the alleged source of the explosive Wikileaks revelations from secret documents released by Julian Assange, that detail case after case of alleged U.S. government misconduct.
Manning, a gay man, is accused of “aiding the enemy,” and has been “tortured” while in custody, according to his attorney, in an alleged attempt to wring a confession from him. A court martial could lead to life in prison or possibly execution.
About 500 protesters chanting “Free Bradley Manning” had met several hours earlier on a muddy field a few hundred yards away from the monument and the gate, now both walled off by police barriers to prevent the crowd from entering the base.
It began as demonstrations usually do, with a raised platform, and microphones and speakers, amid banners and placards. Speakers included Marine Corps veteran and famed Vietnam War-era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who released to Richard Nixon’s great embarrassment the Pentagon Papers; retired Marine Corps Captain David McMichael, now 83 but still ramrod straight, whose last post was as a company commander at Quantico; Army Colonel, retired after 29 years in uniform, and former State Department official, Ann Wright; and Manning’s close personal friend, David House, an expert on information economics, who met Manning in January 2010 at an open-house meeting of a group of computer technology enthusiasts at Boston University.
Manning’s arrest as a suspect accused of handing over 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables to Wikileaks, came in May 2010 when he had returned to his duty station as an Army intelligence analyst stationed with a combat team near Baghdad. Those charges came in July last year, updated this month with further charges including the capital one of “aiding the enemy.” The first of the Wikileaks cables were published in February 2010, with newspapers including the New York Times publishing the rest from November onward.
Manning has never said he was the source for the documents, written by 250 embassies and consulates in 180 countries, which had been downloaded from SIPRNet, the classified State Department computer deposit for diplomatic cables. But he is alleged to have contacted a former computer hacker, Adrian Lamo, and sent him several encrypted e-mails and then chatted with Lamo online. Lamo later told the FBI that Manning had basically said that he was the Wikileaks source.
Those documents included military war logs and documents from both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as the so-called “Collateral Murder” video, shot from a U.S. military Apache helicopter gunship in July 2007 of an airstrike and published by Wikileaks in April 2010, showing the deaths of civilians including two journalists for the Reuters news agency.
Below are excerpts from some of Sunday’s speeches.
ELLSBERG:
“I feel shame as a Marine myself that members of the Marine Corps are torturing Bradley Manning by keeping him in solitary confinement 23 hours a day, and sometimes forcing him to sleep naked and stand in the nude for inspection …
“President Obama could stop that with one phone call,” continued the 72-year-old Ellsberg, as cries from the crowd of “yes, he can” echoed among other shouts of “shame.”
While saying that the burden of proof is on the authorities to prove that Manning passed the classified documents to Wikileaks, something Manning hasn’t admitted, Ellsberg declared of Manning that “if he did do what he’s charged with, then Bradley Manning is an American hero,” noting of himself, that “while this may sound self-serving or boastful, but I was the Bradley Manning of my day … I was called a traitor, as he is, and Bradley Manning is no more of a traitor than I was, and he’s not, and I’m not!”
McMICHAEL:
“Thank you all for being here, this has become a notorious event and cause celebre around the world.” He then expressed his personal “outrage at the way the prosecution of Bradley Manning is being conducted, and the harsh conditions in which he is being held, so severe as to violate both U.S. and international law, and you could call it torture.”
McMicheal read further from his letter to the president about Manning that “the lesser evil is not a good enough reason to support you again,” and that in 2012 he would, though “a loyal Democrat,” oppose Obama for re-election.
WRIGHT:
“I’m horrified at how a member of the U.S. military is being treated, right here at Quantico, and we want this stuff to stop! Let’s get Bradley Manning fair treatment while he’s in pre-trial detention, so he can get an honest trial, and he should be treated with respect” until his trial, instead of with “cruel and unusual punishment.”
HOUSE:
“It’s stuff like this that gives Bradley Manning hope, and when I tell him there are people like you in the ‘transparency’ movement, his eyes light up. If he’s guilty of the things he’s charged with, if he’s the man who released the Wikileaks documents, I consider him a hero of the highest order … and he is not an exception, as a whistleblower, but he is a herald of things to come. … I hope Barack Obama is listening to this!”
Later, House told the Blade that Manning “considers himself to be a very ethical person and an American patriot,” and that “he’s a very humble, intelligent and kind individual.”
After the speakers finished and the rally ended, an event orchestrated beforehand with police authorities, including those from the Virginia State Police and the Prince William County Police, allowed six activists, including Ellsberg, McMichael and Wright, to pass through police barriers, cross Route 1, and approach the Iwo Jima statue. However, they were kept back from entering Marine Corps Base property and were forced to toss their bouquets of red and white carnations through an opening onto the base of the statue.
Then they sat down, in the middle of the highway, and then, at the mournful sound of a bugler, the assembled crowd burst through the barriers and thronged onto the highway joining the six, and many of them also sat down. And for two hours the chants and songs and prayers were heard, until finally, after the protesters refused to vacate the intersection, the police moved in and arrested one by one about 30 of those still seated, including Ellsberg and Wright, on misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly, and impeding access to the road.
Marine Col. Thomas V. Johnson, a spokesperson for the base, said access to the Iwo Jima memorial was denied because protest activity is not permitted on base grounds. But he also said that, “we’re pleased that people were able to express their First Amendment rights in a manner that did not infringe upon base property.”
State Department
State Department implements anti-trans bathroom policy
Memo notes directive corresponds with White House executive order
The State Department on April 20 announced employees cannot use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
The Daily Signal, a conservative news website, reported the State Department announced the new policy in a memo titled “Updates Regarding Biological Sex and Intimate Spaces, Including Restrooms.”
The State Department has not responded to the Washington Blade’s request for comment on the directive.
“The administration affirms that there are two sexes — male and female — and that federal facilities should operate on this objective and longstanding basis to ensure consistency, privacy, and safety in shared spaces,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggot told the Daily Signal. “In line with President Trump’s executive order this provides clear, uniform guidance to the department by grounding policy in biological sex as determined at birth.”
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. The sweeping directive also ordered federal government agencies to “effectuate this policy by taking appropriate action to ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by sex and not identity.”
The Daily Signal notes the new State Department policy “does not prohibit single-occupancy restrooms.”
National
I’m telling the scared little girl I once was it’s okay to feel free
This week is Lesbian Visibility Week
Uncloseted Media published this article on April 23.
By SOPHIE HOLLAND | At 13 years old, I remember looking in the mirror in my Toronto bathroom and thinking, “Yeah, I’m a lesbian.” At the time, I thought it was a dirty word. Thinking back, it could be because the first time I heard it was when a family member said, “I don’t know what a lesbian is, they are like aliens.”
And although I walked around in camouflage Crocs with a rainbow My Little Pony charm, plaid knee-length shorts and a shark tooth necklace (yes, these are all, in my opinion, stereotypically lesbian apparel!), I didn’t feel like I fit the mold. The longer I thought about it, the worse I felt, so I buried my feelings deep inside.
Now I am 25, and I have been out since I was 22. Three years ago, I never could have imagined that I’d be working for a queer news publication and celebrating Lesbian Visibility Week, an annual event meant to honor and uplift lesbian perspectives and highlight the hardships our community faces. To me, LVW is so important because, frankly, it has been an absolute shit show getting here, to a place where I feel love and joy most days.
I think back to the frustration of constantly being asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?” Of watching princess movies and seeing a broken girl only find herself when her prince charming arrives. I remember listening to music that was always about heterosexual relationships. I remember feeling left out in high school when, one by one, my friends got boyfriends.
I tried the boyfriend, and I tried really hard for it to work at a large detriment to my wellbeing. I brainwashed myself into thinking I was probably bisexual, which I told my closest friends around 16 and unsuccessfully told my parents at the same age. I was probably subconsciously using this as a litmus test of their acceptance and to soothe the anxiety I felt around my sexuality.
Learning to love who I am did not only come from me unraveling my internalized lesbophobia and dissecting the oppressive societal messages of heteronormativity. It came from meeting an awesome community of lesbians and queers. I found people who understood my worldview and who showed me the ropes. I no longer had to stutter over concepts like lesbian loneliness or my frustration with misogynistic straight men.
They all just got it.
Without this community, I am not sure if I could be as warm and confident in myself as I am today.
And while I still experience homophobia, like being spat on while walking with an ex in downtown Toronto or having a stranger yell in my face “Are you fucking lesbians?” in Kensington Market, the joy and love still outweighs the nasty.
So, as the sentimental dyke that I have become, I decided to ask a set of lesbians in my orbit — including my friends as well as Uncloseted staffers, board members and followers — if they would share a little bit about what makes them love being a lesbian. And now, I can share it with all of you. Here they are. Happy LVW!
Timi Sotire
Falling in love with her was a reset. I felt like a kid again, hopeful about the future. We’ve had to overcome many obstacles to be together, but I’d choose her in every lifetime. I was sick with a long-term health condition when we met, and hanging out with Sophia really helped me with my recovery after my surgery.
Bella Sayegh
Being a lesbian is one of the most beautiful things in the world. To be authentically yourself in resistance and joy is so special within the lesbian community.
Parker Wales
When I met Liv, I finally understood why almost every song is about love.
Gillian Kilgour
There is no connection quite as perfect as between lesbians, no one sees me like my lesbians do.
Chyna Price
There’s many things I love about being a lesbian. But here are my top three:
- There’s just a deeper understanding when it comes to being loved by another woman.
- The next one would be the sense of community, especially being a POC masculine-presenting lesbian. I don’t feel like I’m cosplaying as someone else like I felt like I was doing before I came out.
- There’s so much history going back to the 1800s on how we found and fought for our love. That fight makes me proud because it shows me … that we’ve [found] ways to express our love even when it was misunderstood, illegal and deemed as madness.
Hope Pisoni
Before I knew I was a lesbian, romantic relationships seemed suffocating — it felt like everyone would expect me to act my part in the meticulous performance that is heterosexuality. But meeting my spouse and discovering our identities together showed me just how freeing it could be to love without a script to follow.
Leital Molad
It was the joy of watching the New York Sirens defeat the Toronto Sceptres at our first professional women’s hockey game — surrounded by hundreds (maybe thousands?) of cheering lesbians.
Angela Earl
I spent years building a life that looked right. But I never felt settled, and eventually I started asking what would actually make me happy. Coming out was about more than who I love, it was letting go of everything I was told to be. The last few years have felt like coming home to a life that had been waiting for me.
Tali Bray
What I love about being a lesbian is what I love about being in love … the wonder and joy of “oh, this is what it’s supposed to feel like.” I love moving through the world with women.
Izzy Stokes
I didn’t fall in love until I realized that queerness was an option. My queer friends have helped me see so much more than I grew up seeing. I’m so proud of us, and I’m so grateful for my lesbian community.
Nandika Chatterjee
When I met my fiancée is when I started to feel most like myself. That meant loving myself for who I am and embracing my identity as a lesbian. I felt free in a way I have never before. That’s the long and short of it.
Liz Lucking
The love and joy of being a lesbian is getting to live the life I dreamed of but never thought I would get to have!
Reflections
As I read these beautiful entries, it’s not lost on me that we’re still living in a world where lesbians are more likely to struggle with maternity problems, fetishization, and compulsory heterosexuality — not to mention the intersectional pressures of racism from both inside and outside the queer community. That’s part of why, according to a 2024 survey, 22 percent of LGBTQ women have attempted suicide, and 66 percent have sought treatment for trauma.
So if you are a lesbian who isn’t out or doesn’t feel safe, I hope you read this and can glean some hope from these messages. So when you look in the mirror, you know that it’s okay to release the weight — which can feel so heavy — of a heteronormative world.
We still have a long fight until all lesbians can feel safe to be themselves, but this is a community that does not back away from the tough, from the joy, from being loud and from all the other things that it takes to start a small revolution.
Hell yeah, lesbians! Here’s to you.
*I am signing off with my cat on my lap and a pride flag over my head <3.
Cuba
Trans parent charged with kidnapping, allegedly fled to Cuba with child
Cuban authorities helped locate Rose Inessa-Ethington
Federal authorities have charged a transgender woman with kidnapping after she allegedly fled to Cuba with her 10-year-old child.
An affidavit that Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Utah on April 16 notes the child is a “biological male who identifies as a female” and “splits time living with divorced parents who share custody” in Cache County, Utah.
Waterfield notes the child on March 28 “was supposed to be traveling by car to” Calgary, Alberta, “for a planned camping trip with his transgender mother, Rose Inessa-Ethington, Rose’s partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, and Blue’s 3-year-old child.”
The affidavit notes the group instead flew from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Mexico City on March 29. Waterfield writes the Inessa-Ethingtons and the two children then flew from Mérida, Mexico, to Havana on April 1.
The 10-year-old child called her biological mother on March 28 after they arrived in Canada. The custody agreement, according to the affidavit, required Rose Inessa-Ethington to return the child to her former spouse on April 3.
“Interviews of MV [Minor Victim] 1’s family members provided significant concerns for MV 1’s well-being, as MV 1 was born a male, however, identifies as a female child, which is largely believed to be due to manipulation by Rose Inessa-Ethington,” reads the affidavit. “Concerns exist that MV 1 was transported to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery prior to puberty.”
The affidavit indicates authorities found a note in the Inessa-Ethingtons’ home with “instruction from a mental health therapist located in Washington, D.C., including instruction to send the therapist the $10,000.00 and instructions on gender-affirming medical care for children.”
The affidavit does not identify the specific “mental health therapist” in D.C.
A Utah judge on April 13 ordered Rose Inessa-Ethington to “immediately” return the child to her former spouse. The former spouse also received sole custody.
“Your affiant believes that due to the extensive planning and preparation exhibited by both Rose Inessa-Ethington and Blue Inessa-Ethington to isolate MV 1 and take MV 1 to Havana, Cuba, without notifying or requesting permission from MV 1’s mother indicates they are likely not planning to return to the United States,” wrote Waterfield.
The affidavit notes Cuban authorities found the Inessa-Ethingtons and the child.
A press release the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah issued notes the Inessa-Ethingtons “were deported from Cuba” on Monday “with the assistance of the FBI.”
The couple has been charged with International Parental Kidnapping. The Inessa-Ethingtons were arraigned in Richmond, Va., on Monday. The press release notes a federal court in Salt Lake City will soon handle the case.
The New York Times reported the child is now back with their biological mother.
“We are grateful to law enforcement for working swiftly to return the child to the biological mother,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah in the press release.
The case is unfolding against the backdrop of increased tensions between Washington and Havana after U.S. forces on Jan. 3 seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. A second White House directive banned federally-funded gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year in the Skrmetti decision upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors.
Cuba’s national health care system has offered free sex-reassignment surgeries since 2008.
Activists who are critical of Mariela Castro, the daughter of former President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTQ issues as director of Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, have previously told the Washington Blade that access to these procedures is limited. The Blade on Wednesday asked a contact in Havana to clarify whether Cuban law currently allows minors to undergo sex-reassignment surgery.
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