Trans Leaders Speak in Chicago at Showing of Heightened Scrutiny
In the midst of national attacks on trans people, the Chicago Teachers’ Union hosted a screening of the documentary Heightened Scrutiny and gave local trans speakers an opportunity to speak.
text and photos by Piper Bly
“When we think about what it looks like in 2024 in the United States to be a trans person, your ability to inhabit that body becomes the subject and the site of social and legal control.”
That’s Chase Strangio’s opening line in the documentary Heightened Scrutiny, directed by Sam Feder. Released last year in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on US v. Skrmetti, the film follows ACLU attorney Chase Strangio’s life in the months leading up to his landmark brief at the Supreme Court, and also features many prominent members of the trans press and legal circles, including a guest appearance from Assigned editor-in-chief Evan Urquhart.
This past Thursday, the Chicago Teacher’s Union’s LGBTQIA+ Committee presented a screening of the film with a panel discussion of some of the luminaries of Chicago’s trans community, and I was invited to attend.
A crowded room of attendees sit in front of two identical screens that take up half the room, with a series of couches and a panel of trans rights advocates and community leaders sitting on a stage below.
It is surreal, watching a historical documentary for an event you were a part of. As readers may remember, Assigned Media was on the ground for Skrmetti; Evan was inside the courtroom for oral arguments, and Valorie Van-Dieman and I covered the demonstrations outside.
A portrait of Dr. Corey Lascano, wearing black-rimed glasses, trans pride earrings, and a short pencil dress, speaking on stage to a crowd of attendees, with an ASL interpreter off to their right.
Chase’s legal team did not win their case, and the Court ruled that trans folk were not entitled to equal protection under the law. As Dr. Corey Lascano (she/they) put it, “our current moment is grim, and it’s heavy with the weight of grief and fear as we see our rights being taken away almost daily.”
After the film, Dr. Lascano led local trans advocates and community leaders in a panel discussion that was, as they insisted, “not about despair. It is about hope, that is driven by action.”
Milo Vieland, a younger masculine figure with a buzz cut, a maroon button-up shirt, black trousers and white trainers, sits with his legs crossed on a sofa as he answers a question from Dr. Lascano.
Milo Vieland (he/him), Trans Health Law Program Coordinator at Legal Council for Health Justice, gave some expanded context to Skrmetti’s ongoing effects, stating “One way that we’re seeing the effects of Skrmetti happening already are, there were a series of cases in federal courts around the country that were decided in favor of civil rights at the lower court level, and then the Skrmetti decision..came down, and the Supreme Court directed those lower courts to re-open those cases…saying to them, we now have this supreme court case that rolls back trans civil rights, and we want you to take a look at these decisions that you already made, because we think that the civil rights that you upheld there are no longer supported.”
One common misconception about Skrmetti is that the ruling does not outright ban trans youth healthcare; rather, it leaves the discussion on whether to ban care up to the states, As Vieland put it, “We know there’s often such a big difference between the law on the books, and what people are experiencing in real life…so I think so often that answers to questions about the law is less a question of ‘what is the law’.”
“The answer to legal questions is not strictly legal, it’s political.”
Asher McMaher, a masc figure with curly bangs covering one eye, black-rimmed glasses, and a suit jacket covering a Trans Up Front T-shirt, speaks into the microphone.
Asher McMaher (they/them), executive director of Trans Up Front, added, “Our organization founded the gender affirming navigation system for our state, and its not just this state, it’s all the states surrounding us, and everyone who’s trying to leave their states to access care, and one of the things I say so often is that we can’t become complacent about our sanctuary status.”
“Just over year ago, Lurie Children’s was the first children’s hospital to roll back…and we’re watching it continue to snowball and roll. And we’re moving into a time where healthcare is turning into a place of privilege, paying out of pocket.”
“When we’re looking at cases like this, it’s giving people the ability to have a prescident to say ‘ope, you can’t have this either.’”
“The thing is that we've endured…As we make it through this administration, despite these legal issues, I know in my heart–hopefully, I can’t do it without doing this work–that we’ll continue to endure and move forward.”
A portrait of Dr. Corey Lascano, wearing black-rimed glasses, trans pride earrings, and a short pencil dress, speaking on stage to a crowd of attendees, with an ASL interpreter off to their right.
On the topic of systemic oppression and privilege, Channyn Lynn Parker (she/her), Chief Executive Officer of Equality Illinois, commented further on Illinois’ sanctuary status, saying, “I love this topic, because sometimes we treat (our status as a) sanctuary state a bit like a welcome mat. Like it’s just this thing that just kind of sits there as a platitude but not as something that we are taking concerted effort into installing state-wide.”
“Santuary state means nothing if the sanctuary does not reach your school, your clinic, your home, and even more narrowly your block.”
“Regardless of what policy may pass…young people, particularly black and brown trans and non-binary people still have the trauma….doesn’t translate into real life and what you said about lived experience. Policy should be the ceiling, but lived experience is the floor.”
“We need to narrow that gap between the two.”
Renyna Ortiz, an Indigenous femme with cat’s-eye glasses, long brown hair, and an olive coat, speaks into a microphone.
Reyna Ortiz (she/her), program director of Taskforce Prevention, added, “As an Indigenous person, I really do feel compelled to talk that gender variant people on this land here have been at war for five hundred years.”
“These are the kind of things we have to talk about, because these systems still exist. And not ony have our communities evolved…but these systems have evolved to. And the same systems that used to feed people like me to the dogs four hundred and eighty years ago are still oppressing us, brutalizing us, and killing us.”
“I think we can have these conversations in a hundred different ways, but if we’re not addressing these systems that are putting us at risk…that are forcing our children to kill themselves, we are going to continue to have these conversations for another five hundred years.”
Renya Ortiz and Asher McMaher sit next to each other, with Reyna speaking into a microphone..
She went on, addressing income and housing inequality in the trans population in Chicago: “There are youth, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen year old trans kids sleeping on the streets. That is not safe, and there is nothing sanctuary about it..and until we start having these conversations and addressing systematic barriers, we’re still going to have these issues”
Shannon added, “Systemic oppression does not pause for progressive legislation. And I think oftentimes, we really do believe that..and that goes to show how far removed we can be.”
“If we don’t have resources that follow rhetoric, then what we do is for naught.”
A portrait of the four panelists, with Albi Gutierrez speaking to the crowd.
Albe Gutierrez (she/her/ella), art therapist at Chicago Therapist Collective, thanked Reina for acknowledging the Indigenous ancestry of the region and the gender-expansive history we all share, stating, “What has guided this wisdom through centuries is continuing to be examples of what is possible.”
“I think about who I was as a youth–a young person, a queer person, gender-expansive–and what led me to become the trans adult I am now, with the grey hair, and the aging!….is seeing that there is possibility. And I think that’s one of the strongest things adults can do for trans youth…is to ensure that there is an example of life for queer adults.”
A portrait of the four panelists, with Albi Gutierrez speaking to the crowd.
Speaking to those of us who may lose access to healthcare, and to those who may never have had access to that care to begin with, Albe quoted the late Chicagoan Aerin “Nefertiti” Pussy Cooper, who passed away in 2019: “I don’t need hormones, sister, because I am naturally transsexual!”
“There is something so brilliant about not needing to change to exist in your fullness…If medical transition might not be a possibility,” Albe reminded the crowd, “the existence of trans-ness exists beyond that.”
“Trauma tends to narrow our perspective, and shorten our sense of the future…and if we can practice expanding perspectives for queer people around us, especially trans youth, that goes a long way towards supporting their mental health.”
A portrait of Dr. Corey Lascano, wearing black-rimed glasses, trans pride earrings, and a short pencil dress, speaking on stage to a crowd of attendees, with an ASL interpreter off to their right.
Skai Underwood (she/her), youth engagement specialist at TaskForce Prevention and lead facilitator at PrEP4Teens, spoke from her experiences being a mentor to trans kids: “You have to meet the youth where they’re at. And we can’t sit here and think that we’re gonna get their attention if they’re gonna sit here being lectured.”
“I teach about ballroom history at CPS school, teaching them about the history of queerness. That’s something that I feel like, it should be taught in classrooms, because that’s a part of black history. That’s a part of black and brown history, it’s a part of our history as Americans, to be honest.”
“That history should be taught….giving them courage, letting them know ‘hey, it’s okay, you’re not different, you’re just like everybody else’. I think that’s the biggest thing.”
All of the panelists having a conversation, with Asher McMaher holding the mic. An ASL interpreter sits on a desk in the foreground.
The screening and panel may have been one-night-only, but this won’t be the last we hear from these trans community leaders. Trans Day Of Visibility is coming up, and while nothing has been formally announced yet, I’ve been told that the fine folks at Trans Up Front are already planning a second follow-up rally to last year’s rally.
Stay tuned, and stay safe.
–PIPER
Piper Bly is a professional illustrator and underground cartoonist. When she’s not busy plowing away at her drawing board, singing dirges in the moonlight, or wandering throughout the United States, she can often be found tending to her ivies, frying up some biscuits, spending unreasonable hours in the gym, or floating above the Mississippi River at midnight, waiting for the tide to wrap her in its loving embrace and take her away. Her whereabouts are currently undisclosed. You, however, can find her at piperbly.com.