[efdee]

"I'd like to shake his [sic] hand, buy him [sic] a beer, thank him [sic] personally", "but I believe Manning's sentence [of 35 years in prison] is reasonable". My jaw dropped to the floor. Assuming that you want to thank her for doing that thing that landed her in prison, there is nothing you can say that can reconcile those two statements for me.

[duaneb]

Are they contradictory? There are plenty of criminals I like personally who deserve to serve time for breaking the law.

EDIT: I wouldn't conflate ignorance of her gender and disrespect, it's not anything I've ever heard.

[Pxtl]

You miss the point. Pfc. Manning now identifies as Chelsea Manning. She is transgendered, and since her military career is toast she has come out of the closet on the subject.

I'm going to be generous and assume that duaneb poster was not closely following the story and is unaware of the above.

Transpersons are always the subject of massive flamewars online, so some folks get really strong kneejerk reactions to misgendering.

[Gracana]

I think efbee was responding to "I think what they did was right but also they deserve a 35 year sentence" as the two irreconcilable statements. Misgendering is an important point as well, but it's not what makes the statements contradictory.

[duaneb]

I was not aware of Manning's being transgendered, and I don't mean any disrespect—consider it an editorial he given my assumption of gender from sex (I can't edit).

[sliverstorm]

I doubt it was malicious. I read about it right when she made her choice public, and I still forget regularly. I'm just not used to people changing gender, so my mental constructs treat it as kind of a read-only value...

[hmsimha]

So you're saying you like Manning personally, but not for her 'criminal' actions? What about her makes you want to 'shake [her] hand' and 'buy [her] a beer' then?

[duaneb]

Legal actions and actions I approve of are not mutually exclusive.

[hmsimha]

You approve of an action that happens to be illegal, and think people who take that action deserve prison time? I don't follow. If a person's actions are noble in my estimation, I wouldn't wish punishment upon them for their actions.