All you need to know about trans lawyer Chase Strangio ahead of historic Supreme Court appearance

Chase Strangio will become the first out transgender lawyer to present a case before the US Supreme Court, as part of a legal battle defending trans healthcare.

The 42-year-old trans man and legal activist, who works with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is due to argue before the nation’s highest court in a history-making session on Wednesday (4 December).

The case, US v. Skrmetti, was brought to the Supreme Court after Tennessee lawmakers approved a ban on gender-affirming care for under-18s.

The legislation would also force transgender youngsters who are currently using puberty blockers – physically reversible hormone blockers used by under-18s before they begin hormone replacement therapy – to end their treatment.

Republican governor Bill Lee signed the bill into law in March 2023, but the move was challenged by families living in the state, as well as the ACLU, who argued that it set a “dangerous and discriminatory” precedent.

Strangio said: “The future of countless transgender youth in this and future generations rests on this court adhering to the facts, the constitution and its own modern precedent.

“These bans represent a dangerous and discriminatory affront to the well-being of transgender youth across the country and their constitutional right to equal protection under the law. They are the result of an openly political effort to wage war on a marginalised group and our most fundamental freedoms.”

The Justice Department filed a number of briefs to support the transgender youngsters and appeals courts came to different decisions, so the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

More than 116 bills imposing healthcare restrictions against LGBTQ+ people across a number of states have been proposed this year alone, with a number passing through state legislatures and at least 10 having been enacted into law.

Speaking to CNN, Strangio said: “It is not lost on me that I will be standing at the lectern at the Supreme Court in part because I was able to have access to the medical care that is the very subject of the case we’re litigating, every aspect of gender-affirming care that has transformed my life.

“I’m keenly aware that I want to preserve the ability for other people to access that care.”

Who is Chase Strangio?

Born on 29 October 1982, Strangio grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Grinnell College, in Iowa, graduating in 2004.

He got his start in law after joining GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders as a paralegal, before attending Boston’s Northeastern University School of Law. It was there that Strangio, already a staunch advocate of LGBTQ+ rights, came out as a trans man.

After graduating in 2010, he eventually joined the ACLU where he served as counsel on a variety of cases involving trans people, including transgender veteran and whistle-blower Chelsea Manning.

He became the ACLU’s deputy director for trans justice, and last year worked alongside activists to create the Trans Youth Prom in Washington DC, designed for transgender high-school pupils who had been barred from their own dance.

He told The Hill that the prom, planned after a Mississippi transgender student was forced to miss her graduation after being told to dress “like a boy”, was a “needed disruption” from the negativity of transphobia.

“This is about trans joy, trans creativity, trans brilliance and trans futures,” he said. “What was immediately apparent to everyone was that this year was going to be so much different and so much worse. We’re done saying the same thing to legislators over and over and spending our childhoods just begging to be seen.”

Strangio now reportedly lives in New York and has one child.

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