Military claim that Bradley Manning 'mentally unfit' echoes past bias against homosexuals, charge LGBT Greens, marching for alleged WikiLeaks source in Los Angeles Pride Parade Sunday

Bradley Manning - WikiLeaks' alleged source - is a patriot who is, in part, being persecuted because of anti-Gay bias, according a Green Party of California organizer here preparing to participate in this Sunday's LGBT Pride Parade.

Shane Que Hee, facilitator of both "Out Against War" and LA LGBT Greens said Friday he'll march for Manning, who has been held largely incommunicado and without trial for more than a year. After a flurry of complaints by human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Manning was moved recently from solitary confinement in a Marine prison to a medium security prison.

"Bradley Manning has been condemned as guilty of supplying 'secrets' to WikiLeaks without a trial. He has been tortured. Both President Obama and Senator Dianne Feinstein have assumed he is guilty. This is not the America I want.

"The fact that Bradley Manning is Gay, and the military's recent assertion that Bradley Manning is 'mentally unfit' to be in the military echoes the old military bias and the old medical description of homosexuals as mentally ill," charged Que Hee.

"Bradley's father cast him from his home for being Gay, and the military was his only recourse to stay off the streets. He became a patriot. But he's now said how shocked he was to find that all the reasons he enlisted were gradually found to be false. All of us eventually have to make similar choices like Bradley's," said Que Hee.

He noted that "celebrating one's sexuality at LGBT Pride is linked to truth and personal integrity," as demonstrated by the actions Manning is alleged to have made in the release of important information about U.S. war-making in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The GPCA demanded Bradley Manning's immediate release several times earlier this year.

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Contacts:

Laura Wells, Spokesperson, 510.504.4254, lwells@cagreens.org

Michael Feinstein, Spokesperson, 310.392.8450, mfeinstein@cagreens.org 

Derek Iversen, Spokesperson, 323.481.8984, diversen@cagreens.org

The Green Party of California

PO Box 2828

Sacramento, CA 95812

Phone: (916) 448-3437

Web: http://www.cagreens.org

EMail: gpca@greens.org