US Army will not allow Bradley Manning to become a woman The soldier is expected to serve out his sentence at Fort Leavenworth, a major base in Kansas, and officials there said he would not be allowed to have hormone treatment while in prison. "The Army does not provide hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery for gender identity disorder," said Jeff Wingo, a spokesman for the base. In theory, the Secretary of the Army could allow Manning to transfer to a civilian prison to undergo treatment but it is more likely he will have to wait until his release to begin therapy. Although a military judge sentenced him to 35 years he will be eligible for parole in around seven years and could emerge from prison as young as 32. David Coombs, Manning's lawyer, told NBC he hoped "Fort Leavenworth would do the right thing and provide [hormone therapy]. "If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure that they're forced to do so," he said. Fort Leavenworth is a male-only prison but Mr Coombs said he would not try to get his client moved to a female facility. "The ultimate goal is to be comfortable in her skin and be the person she never had an opportunity to be," Mr Coombs said. He said Manning did not indicate that he wanted to under go sex reassignment surgery. During Manning's 20-month court martial his defence team occasionally raised the issue of his struggle with his gender identity. The court heard about an email titled "My Problem," which Manning sent to superiors along with a photograph of himself as a woman. He created a female alter-ego named "Breanna" but yesterday was the first time he announced his desire to be called Chelsea. Mr Coombs said Manning kept his desire secret during the trial because "Chelsea didn't to have want this to be something that overshadowed the case, wanted to wait to wait until the case was done to move on to the next stage of her life." A military psychologist diagnosed Manning with the disorder, also known as gender dysphoria, while he was deployed to Iraq in early 2010. Manning was also forced to hide his homosexuality as the US military prohibited troops from being openly gay. President Barack Obama scrapped the policy, referred to as "Don't Ask Don't Tell," in 2011. A spokesman for Fort Leavenworth said that while prisoners would not be allowed hormone treatment they would be "treated equally regardless of race, rank, ethnicity, or sexual orientation." The Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights group, said Manning's "transition deserves to be treated with dignity and respect." As she requested in her letter, journalists and other officials should use her chosen name of Chelsea and refer to her with female pronouns. Using the name Bradley or male pronouns is nothing short of an insult," the group said in a statement.