Strangio Times at the Supreme Court

The conservative judges appeared to have been properly briefed on the science while the progressive judges were briefed only by advocacy groups.

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About the Author

Lisa Selin Davis is the author of two novels, BELLY and LOST STARS, and two nonfiction books, TOMBOY and HOUSEWIFE. She's at work on a book about the youth gender culture war.

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The first person I saw when I entered the Supreme Court building on Wednesday morning was the ACLU’s Chase Strangio. Small of stature, Strangio was draped in a shawl-collared marine blue wool coat that looked like it had either come from the women’s section or the steampunk section. “I’m Lisa Davis,” I said to him. “We got together for coffee a few years ago?”

“I remember,” Strangio sneered, then turned away.

My time in this esteemed building was off to a terrific start!

I’d gotten a press pass to observe U.S. v Skrmetti, the case Strangio was there to argue—the first transgender-identified lawyer to do so before the Supreme Court. The U.S.’s case hinged on the argument that denying testosterone to girls but not boys, and estrogen to boys but not girls—and puberty blockers to kids who didn’t identify as trans but to kids with other conditions—constituted sex discrimination. If the court found that to true, states would have a harder time proving the validity of bans on “gender-affirming care.” It would, in essence, elevate transgender people to a protected class, like race or religion.

If SCOTUS ruled that it wasn’t sex discrimination, then lower courts would have an easier time upholding the bans—and perhaps not just with regards to medicine, but in other areas where gender identity and sex compete, as in women’s sports, locker rooms, and prisons.

Outside the court, differing opinions about the issue were on display. Before I went in, I’d stopped by dual rallies taking place in front of the building. On one side, friends of the ACLU and others supporting pediatric gender medicine. On the other, those against it. They ranged from conservative right-wing commentators like Matt Walsh, to liberal gays and lesbians like Ben Appel and Jamie Reed—those who’d been gender nonconforming, sometimes gender dysphoric young people, and grew up to be gay, not trans.

I’d walked around to various press outlets and pitched them the story that I’ve essentially been pitching to the mainstream media for the last four years non-stop: “Did you see all the lesbians, gays, and liberals on the ban side? Pretty interesting angle, isn’t it? More complicated than saying the issue is left versus right?” For the most part, I got polite nods, but little curiosity.