Chase Strangio is already a part of U.S. historical past: The ACLU legal professional turned the primary trans particular person to argue a case earlier than the Supreme Courtroom, and now, he’s being immortalized onscreen with documentary “Heightened Scrutiny.”
Strangio was the lawyer to argue the US v Skrmetti, which was about whether or not or not the state of Tennessee had the constitutional authority to forestall trans youth from receiving gender-affirming care akin to puberty blockers and hormone remedy. The court docket upheld the Tennessee legislation by a 6-3 vote, no shock given its conservative supermajority as appointed throughout President Trump’s first time period.
“Heightened Scrutiny” premiered on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant previous to the court docket’s determination. Sam Feder directs, with Laverne Cox, S. Mona Sinha, Invoice and Ruth Ann Harnisch, Lisa Freeman, and Sara Hinkle government producing. Co-executive producers are Charlotte Cook dinner and Andrew Kim, and Amy Scholder and Paola Mendoza produce.
The logline reads: “Fearless civil rights lawyer, Chase Strangio, battles on the Supreme Courtroom for transgender adolescents’ entry to life-saving healthcare, confronting not solely the authorized system but in addition a media panorama that distorts public notion and threatens the battle for trans rights.”
Cox, Elliot Web page, Jelani Cobb, Lydia Polgreen, Miss Peppermint, Phillip Picardi, and Tre’vell Anderson are all featured within the movie, which was an IndieWire Critic’s Decide. The IndieWire evaluation cited how Feder’s 2020 documentary “Disclosure,” which tracked the evolution of how trans tales are represented onscreen, partially led to “Heightened Scrutiny.”
“Feder kinds one other compelling argument in opposition to trans bias, albeit one which’s immediacy proves much more dire,” the evaluation reads.
And that direness is little doubt acknowledged by Feder, who informed Deadline that the Supreme Courtroom determination solely added to the significance of the documentary being in theaters. “Releasing the movie on the heels of the devastating Supreme Courtroom determination (LW v Skrmetti) final week, we flip our focus to the work forward with renewed conviction – bringing the movie to audiences,” Feder and Scholder stated in a earlier assertion. “In a mainstream media local weather that’s more and more hostile to the trans neighborhood, the movie explores why and the way we’ve arrived at this second. Whereas the precise for all to entry healthcare is a basic democratic worth, why has it develop into a debate in the case of trans lives? We made this movie capturing a historic second of the enduring battle for trans rights; in releasing the movie, we hope to encourage coalitions with all struggles for civil rights and bodily autonomy, as a result of an assault on a few of us is an assault on all of us. Whereas our movie ends on the steps of the Supreme Courtroom, the story is way from over.”
Fourth Act Movie will launch “Heightened Scrutiny” in theaters July 18 in NYC and July 24 in LA, with further markets to comply with. Try the trailer under.