Chase Strangio (/strænˈdʒiːoʊ/[1] born October 29, 1982)[2] is an American lawyer and transgender rights activist. He is the Deputy Director for Transgender Justice[3] and staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).[4][5] He is the first known transgender person to make oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States.[6]
After graduating from Northeastern in 2010, Strangio received a fellowship from the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) to continue developing his legal skills.[5]
Career and activism
After law school, Strangio worked as a public defender for Dean Spade, the first openly trans law professor in the U.S.[7] Spade's work had inspired Strangio while he was in college.[5]
In 2012, Strangio and trans activist Lorena Borjas founded the Lorena Borjas Community Fund to provide bail and bond assistance to trans people.[9][5]
In 2013, Strangio began working for the ACLU.[8] Strangio served as lead counsel for the ACLU team representing transgender U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning.[4][5] He was also part of the team suing on behalf of trans student Gavin Grimm, who was denied access to the boys' restrooms at his school.[4][10]
In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 6–3 in favor of Gerald Bostock, a gay man terminated from his job due to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, in Bostock v. Clayton County. The court ruled that it is illegal to discriminate in employment on the basis of transgender identity or sexual orientation.[16][17]
In November 2020, journalist Glenn Greenwald criticized Strangio's comments about the book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier. Strangio, who had tweeted that "stopping the circulation of this book and these ideas is 100% a hill I will die on," responded that he was not speaking for the ACLU and said he deleted his tweet because "there were relentless calls to have me fired, which I found exhausting as I was navigating work and childcare."[18][19] According to the New York Times, Strangio's tweet had "startled traditional backers [of the ACLU], who remembered its many fights against book censorship and banning".[20]
Since 2021, Strangio has worked with the ACLU to fight against state legislation seeking to prohibit children from accessing treatment for gender transition.[27] On December 4, 2024, he became the first known transgender person to make oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Skrmetti, a case brought to challenge a Tennessee law prohibiting certain forms of gender-affirming care (including puberty blockers and hormone therapy) for transgender minors.[28][29] In the days ahead of oral arguments, Strangio published an op-ed in the New York Times describing how having access to the forms of gender-affirming medical care prohibited by the Tennessee law saved his own life.[30]
Honors and recognition
In 2014, Strangio was named to the Trans 100 list for "outstanding contributions to the trans community".[31][32]
In June 2017, Strangio was one of those chosen for NBC Out's inaugural "#Pride30" list.[4]
In May 2018, Strangio was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by his alma mater Grinnell College.[33]
In November 2019, he was awarded the American Bar Association's Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity's 2020 Stonewall Award.[34]
Strangio was included in 2020's Time 100 most influential people in the world.[35]
Personal life
His partner is the art curator and writer Kimberly Drew (as of 2021).[36] As of 2022, Strangio lives in New York City and has one child.[27]
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