U.S. National Security Culture: From Queer Psychopathology to Queer Citizenship Hamilton Bean ABSTRACT The case of Chelsea Manning represents both continuity and change in the history of U.S. national security culture. Manning’s stated motives are similar to the motives of other national security leakers; however, pre-court-martial media discourse (June  – January ) often emphasizes Manning’s sexual orientation, implying that queer psychopathology uniquely explains her decision to provide classified material to WikiLeaks. Such commentary reflects and reinforces the persistent institutional and cultural myth that homosexuality endangers national security. Manning’s case, however, suggests opportunities for the development of queer citizenship within U.S. national security affairs. Daniel Ellsberg leaked the top-secret “Pentagon Papers” to the New York Times in . The leak exposed presidential deception concerning the Vietnam War, thereby undermining public support for the War and hastening its end.  The leak also catalyzed a series of events, including the Watergate burglary, that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in . Commentators have under- standably drawn parallels between Ellsberg and Chelsea Manning. The Guard- ian’s Glenn Greenwald wrote, “Those wanting the Army Private [Manning] imprisoned are afraid to condemn the virtually identical acts of Daniel Ells- berg.”  The Christian Science Monitor’s Anna Mulrine asked in a headline: “Is Bradley Manning the new Ellsberg?”  Ellsberg has, in fact, become one of Man- ning’s most vocal defenders. He famously asserted in a March  interview with CNN, “I was that young man; I was Bradley Manning.”  Ellsberg simply may have Copyright ©  Michigan State University. Hamilton Bean, “U.S. National Security Culture: From Queer Psychopathology to Queer Citizenship,” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking . (): – . ISSN -. All rights reserved. (((  This work originally appeared in QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 1.1, Spring 2014, published by Michigan State University Press.