Bradley Manning

WASHINGTON (AP) — By asking to be known as a woman named Chelsea, Bradley Manning has created a host of possible challenges for the military as the soldier begins serving a 35-year prison sentence for giving secrets to WikiLeaks.

Bradley Manning received a 35-year prison sentence on Wednesday after being convicted of espionage and theft. Manning shared more than 700,000 documents—including battlefield videos, diplomatic cables and classified files regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—with the website Wikileaks in 2010.

Bradley Manning, the Army private who gave thousands of classified U.S. military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks, was acquitted of "aiding the enemy" in a court martial, but convicted on other counts.