Chase Strangio, co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, will present arguments against a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth before the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 4.
According to the National Law Journal, Strangio is the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the Supreme Court.
The ACLU is among groups suing the state of Tennessee on behalf of Samantha and Brian Williams and their 15-year-old transgender daughter. They claim Tennessee's law bans doctors from providing "medically necessary care to trans youth." Two anonymous families are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“It was incredibly painful watching my child struggle before we were able to get her the life-saving healthcare she needed. We have a confident, happy daughter now, who is free to be herself and she is thriving,” said plaintiff Samantha Williams. “I am so afraid of what this law will mean for her. We don’t want to leave Tennessee, but this legislation would force us to either routinely leave our state to get our daughter the medical care she desperately needs or to uproot our entire lives and leave Tennessee altogether."
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The ACLU says that Strangio is a leader in developing strategies to fight anti-transgender laws.
“Chase Strangio is our nation’s leading legal expert on the rights of transgender people, bar none,” said Cecillia Wang, ACLU legal director. “He brings to the lectern not only brilliant constitutional lawyering, but also the tenacity and heart of a civil rights champion. Our clients couldn’t have a better advocate in this case.”
In a podcast produced in January by the ACLU, "The Way Forward for Trans Justice," Strangio explained how laws banning gender-affirming care can impact families of transgender youth.
"This has become a centerpiece of a national discourse that is so untethered, not only from the facts and the evidence, but also from what you would think of as in what these politicians thought of as traditional conservative values," Strangio said. "You know, it's an interference with the decision-making of parents. It's an interference with the family. It is a disruption of the agreement among the adolescent, their parents and their medical providers and the entirety of the medical establishment."
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, the defendant in the lawsuit, has called gender-affirming care "risky."
“The people of Tennessee, through their elected representatives, took measured action with Senate Bill 1 to protect kids from irreversible, unproven medical procedures,” said Skrmetti. “Lawmakers recognized that there is little to no credible evidence to justify the serious risks these procedures present to youth and joined a growing number of European countries in restricting their use on minors with gender-identity issues.”
Tennessee is among 24 states that have some sort of restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors.
What is gender-affirming care?
An American Medical Association letter sent to state governors says, “Accepted medically necessary services that affirm gender or treat gender dysphoria may include mental health counseling, non-medical social transition, gender-affirming hormone therapy, and/or gender-affirming surgeries.”
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In a 2020 amicus brief filed in a federal court case by various medical organizations, it says surgery is “appropriate and medically necessary” for some patients.
“These procedures could include chest reconstruction surgery for transgender men, breast augmentation for transgender women, or genital surgeries, including removal of the testicles, the primary source of testosterone production, in women who are transgender,” the brief said.
