‘Retreat mode’: ACLU’s top transgender litigator talks of compromise amid image change

Published December 17, 2025 11:45am ET



Chase Strangio, the American Civil Liberties Union‘s go-to transgender lawyer for litigating its top LGBT cases before the Supreme Court, came out as binary-conforming after years of identifying as “nonbinary,” a term for someone who identifies as neither exclusively male nor female.

Strangio’s switch-up has raised eyebrows among opponents of gender ideology, especially as Strangio argues another ACLU case to force the federal government to recognize “nonbinary” status on identification documents.

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