Meet the lawyer fighting for the rights of high-profile transgender clients like Chelsea Manning and Gavin Grimm.
AT A SMALL tailor shop in Brooklyn, Gavin Grimm emerges from behind a wooden screen in a brand new charcoal-gray suit and fastens the last button on his crisp white dress shirt. Grimm, a 17-year-old transgender high school senior, flew in from his home in rural Virginia for the fitting; he needed new threads to wear to an upcoming Supreme Court hearing. He surveys his reflection in a towering mirror. “It fits,” he says with a smile, noting how the cut of the ensemble hides the curve of his hips and broadens his shoulders.
“It does look really good,” says his lawyer Chase Strangio, who has been poring over documents on a laptop perched atop an ironing board. Strangio is behind some of the big gest recent legal fights for gay and transgender rights: He pushed for marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges and is a lead counsel for whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who came out as trans while in military custody. Now he’s part of the American Civil Liberties Union legal team that’s suing to get Grimm access to the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
Grimm’s lawsuit has been hailed as a landmark trans gender rights case, and Strangio wants to help the once painfully shy teenager navigate the pressure of being a standard bearer for the cause. The evening before the fitting, he introduced Grimm to Laverne Cox, the Emmy nominated transgender actress known for her role in Orange Is the New Black. “It’s always a good thing when you stand up for yourself,” she told Grimm.
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