Green Party Support for Chelsea Manning

Over the past several years, I wrote some news releases for the San Francisco Green Party. This one is from May 2013, when Private Manning was denied Grand Marshal status for the annual San Francisco Pride celebration. As Chelsea remains unjustly incarcerated, many hope she will receive a Presidential pardon. The Green Party continues to support Chelsea’s release from prison. Sign the petition to free her here: https://www.chelseamanning.org/pardonpetition.

Green Party Supports Private Manning for Grand Marshal of San Francisco Pride

Green Party members, already outraged by the continuing prosecution of whistle-blower Chelsea Manning, are joining a growing chorus of individuals and organizations supporting Manning as a Grand Marshal for San Francisco Pride 2013.

In what has become a growing controversy, Manning was reportedly already named Grand Marshal. Unfortunately, San Francisco Pride Board President Lisa Williams quickly moved to deny this. In a statement, Williams alleged that Manning’s participation in exposing war crimes, corporate malfeasance, and other atrocities justified the Obama Administration’s charges against her. The statement and reaction sent shock waves across the LGBTIQ community. Columnist Glenn Greenwald, who is gay, noted that the SF Pride Board has accepted sponsorship from corporations like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, whose criminally reckless actions triggered the 2008 economic crisis and cost millions of Americans their homes, jobs, and savings.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/27/bradley-manning-sf-gay-pride)

“Chelsea Manning is a patriot who bravely took great personal risk to bring military abuses to light,” said Starlene Rankin, Co-Chair of the Green Party’s Lavender Caucus.

Rankin noted that the Green Party platform has long supported full equality for members of the LGBTIQ community.
http://www.cagreens.org/platform/sexual-orientation

Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential candidate in 2012, vowed to immediately pardon Chelsea Manning if elected, a move that caught the attention of the Chelsea Manning Support Network.
https://www.chelseamanning.org/news/green-party-candidate-jill-stein-i-would-immediately-pardon-bradley-manning

The Green Party has strongly criticized the Obama Administration for prosecuting whistle-blowers who have exposed government, military, and corporate crime. Greens note that Obama has failed to prosecute Wall Street companies for fraud and money laundering, while Bush-Cheney officials who authorized torture and other war crimes have not been held accountable.