MEET

CHASE STRANGIO

Trailblazing Civil Rights Attorney & Deputy Director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project

ABOUT CHASE

Chase Strangio is a trailblazing civil rights attorney and one of the most visible advocates for transgender rights in the United States. As Deputy Director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, he litigates extensively in federal and state courts and leads high-impact legal, legislative, and cultural advocacy efforts nationwide. His work is driven by a deep commitment to protecting the rights of transgender people, LGBTQ communities, and individuals living with HIV, with a particular focus on impact litigation and policy efforts that challenge discrimination across criminal justice and healthcare systems—especially amid an escalating wave of state-level attacks on trans rights and gender-affirming care.

  • Strangio has served as counsel in some of the most defining legal battles of the past decade, including the ACLU’s challenges to North Carolina’s HB2 (Carcaño v. Cooper), the Trump administration’s transgender military ban (Stone v. Trump), and the historic R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC, which resulted in a landmark 6–3 Supreme Court ruling extending Title VII protections to LGBTQ workers. His litigation and advocacy have also addressed HIV-related discrimination, underscoring how laws targeting bodily autonomy and identity often intersect with broader inequities in healthcare access and criminalization. He was also part of the legal team in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that secured marriage equality nationwide. More recently, in December 2024, Strangio presented oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti, a pivotal case challenging Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth—a first for an openly trans lawyer.

    A frequent presence in media and a sought-after voice on legal strategy and justice reform, Strangio’s influence extends beyond the courtroom. His advocacy work includes co-founding the Lorena Borjas Community Fund, which provides direct bail and bond support for LGBTQ immigrants, and TranSanta, a mutual aid initiative supporting trans youth. He is also the force behind the Trans Week of Visibility and Action and the executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning short film Texas Strong. Though he often expresses discomfort with public accolades, Strangio was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2020 and has been described by Laverne Cox as someone who “wields the powers of the system to help the most vulnerable.”

    Strangio holds degrees from Grinnell College and Northeastern University School of Law and began his legal career as an Equal Justice Works fellow at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. There, he represented transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals in confinement settings, laying the groundwork for a lifelong fight for dignity, equity, and survival.

    Drawing on his experience at the forefront of civil rights litigation, Strangio speaks with universities, legal organizations, and communities about transgender rights, constitutional law, and the evolving landscape of justice and equity in America. Through a combination of legal insight and lived experience, he challenges audiences to better understand the real-world impact of policy and the urgency of protecting civil liberties. Chase Strangio works in partnership with APB Speakers for speaking engagements worldwide.

    Today, he remains one of the most courageous and consistent legal minds at the forefront of trans justice, balancing courtroom victories with community-rooted care and coalition building.

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TAGS & EXPERTISE

Human Rights • Advocacy • Public Policy • Civil Rights • Leadership • Storytelling • Diversity & Inclusion • Social Impact • Equality

SPEAKING TOPICS

  • Transgender people are facing an all-out assault in state legislatures, in the courts and in the public discourse. Opportunistically weaponized by political actors to turn out votes, this small and marginalized community has never faced so many barriers to legal equality and material survival. In this talk, the ACLU’s Deputy Director for Trans Justice Chase Strangio will talk about how the fight for trans rights takes on new urgency in the court in a post-Dobbs world, the limits of legal advocacy and the potential for cross-movement mobilizing in the years ahead.

  • In a post-Dobbs world, access to abortion has been dangerously compromised. The anti-abortion movement has quickly pivoted to attacking access to health care for transgender people and in legislatures and courts, the anti-abortion playbook is being methodically executed to broaden the reach of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs and to curtail bodily autonomy for everyone. In this talk, the ACLU’s Chase Strangio will discuss the current overlapping fights for reproductive and transgender justice and how winning the fight for bodily autonomy will require coordinated movements in the coming years.

  • The attacks on the freedom and dignity of trans people and their families continue to escalate, with one-third of the country passing laws that criminalize and ban access to gender-affirming care. A nationally recognized expert on transgender rights, the Deputy Director for Transgender Justice for the ACLU LGBTQ and HIV Project and the top LGBTQ+ attorney in the country, Chase Strangio discusses the ACLU’s Trans initiatives, his role at the famed civil rights organization and what we all can do to help protect Trans people from discrimination.

  • How can we keep our Trans or Non-binary children thriving, healthy and safe now that they face a world that no longer appreciates or recognizes them? In this talk, Chase Strangio, a nationally recognized expert on transgender rights, the Deputy Director for Transgender Justice for the ACLU LGBTQ and HIV Project and the top LGBTQ+ attorney in the country, shares what parents need to know about rights for their kids and the precautions they need to take to ensure they are not discriminated against.

  • Gender-affirming care is essential for the health and well-being of transgender people. It allows us to live our lives authentically and as our full selves. And yet every day, more and more barriers are being put into place to limit access to it. In this talk, Chase Strangio, a nationally recognized expert on transgender rights, the Deputy Director for Transgender Justice for the ACLU LGBTQ and HIV Project and the top LGBTQ+ attorney in the country, discusses these barriers, including lack of insurance coverage, discrimination from healthcare providers and lack of education about transgender health. “Everyone deserves to have access to the healthcare they need, regardless of their gender identity,” Chase says.

FEATURED VIDEOS

TESTIMONIALS

  • “Chase was a smash hit. Such a powerful, empathetic speaker who really connected with our audience. He got a standing ovation! I can’t thank APB enough for facilitating this opportunity.”

    — Equitas Health Institute

  • “Chase was WONDERFUL. He was down-to-earth, personable, and professional. It was fantastic bringing him to campus, and thank you to APB for all the support.”

    — Rutgers University

  • “The event with Chase was excellent. We had several partners reach out and express that they loved hearing the evolution of trans litigation through the perspective of someone so steeped in the law. The contextualization of the history of this litigation and how it relates to marriage equality and bodily autonomy was widely enjoyed and appreciated, and one partner even commented it was like attending a very engaging constitutional law class. We are so pleased with how it went—this was one of our favorite events we have been able to put on through AxinnPride!”

    — Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP

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