Heightened Scrutiny
After the screening, join us for a discussion about local advocacy to combat rising threats to trans healthcare with Harvard legal scholar Alexander Chen and Executive Director of The Theatre Offensive Giselle Byrd, moderated by WBUR's Tiziana Dearing.
Heightened Scrutiny follows Chase Strangio, ACLU attorney and the first out trans person to argue before the Supreme Court, as he fights a high-stakes legal battle to overturn Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth (United States v. Skrmetti). The film exposes the dangerous role of mainstream media in fueling anti-trans legislation, uncovering how biased coverage drives hate, endangers lives, and threatens democracy itself. With insights from journalists like Jelani Cobb, Lydia Polgreen, and Gina Chua, and activists like Laverne Cox, the story dismantles anti-trans disinformation and highlights its devastating real-world impact.
With the dangerous SCOTUS decision upholding the ban on life-saving healthcare, Heightened Scrutiny is an urgent call to action against bigotry and injustice.
ABOUT ALEXANDER CHEN
Professor Alexander Chen is the Founding Director of the LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic at Harvard Law School, where he also teaches Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, and the Law. He is one of the nation’s leading experts in LGBTQ+ civil rights law. Prof. Chen attended Oxford University (B.A. 2009), Columbia University (M.A. 2012), and Harvard Law School (J.D. 2015), where he was the first openly transgender editor of the Harvard Law Review. He clerked on the Ninth Circuit for the Hon. M. Margaret McKeown, and in the Southern District of California for the Hon. Gonzalo P. Curiel.
ABOUT GISELLE BYRD
Giselle Byrd is the newly appointed Executive Director of The Theater Offensive, making her the first Black trans woman to lead a regional theatre company in the United States. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, she is passionately continuing and amplifying the theater’s mission for uplifting and elevating the work of queer and transgender artists of color and LGBTQIA+ youth and their allies.
With over ten years of experience, holding multiple roles in talent management, production, casting, script coverage, brand partnerships, and fundraising, Byrd has used her expertise to help elevate both talent and brand collaborations. Aiming to inspire members of her community to find their voices and showcase their greatness, Byrd has represented clients who work in the entertainment industry, social justice activism, and digital media.
As a producer, she holds the honor of being the first transgender woman to be accepted into Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women's Filmmaker Program. Her documentary film debut, “Giselle’s Story,” directed by Susan O’Brien, was accepted into the Imagine This International Women’s Festival. Her subsequent film, "When We Arrive As Flowers," executive produced by Alexandra Billings, was screened in numerous film festivals throughout the country during the 2022-2023 season, continuing her personal mission of advocating and educating a diverse array of communities on the beauty of transgender life, through a cinematic lens.
In addition to this work, Byrd serves on the Board of Directors at both Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, which provides healthcare and resources to members of the LGBTQIA+ community, regardless of their ability to pay, and The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, which is the world’s only contemporary art museum dedicated to LGBTQIA+ artists. She is also a member of the advisory board for The Ali Forney Center, which provides transitional housing, education, health, career, and food services to displaced at-risk LGBTQIA+ youth.
About Tiziana Dearing
Tiziana Dearing is the host of WBUR’s Morning Edition. Prior to helping listeners start the morning with news from around the corner and around the world, Tiziana hosted Radio Boston, WBUR’s daily local magazine, for five years.
Tiziana came to journalism after a career that spanned academia, nonprofits and for-profit management consulting. She taught graduate students at the Boston College School of Social Work and chaired its program in Social Innovation and Leadership. Tiziana ran a start-up foundation focused on breaking generational cycles of poverty in Boston neighborhoods and was the first woman president of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston.
Earlier in her work life, she ran a research center at the Harvard Kennedy School and worked in management consulting. Tiziana has won a number of awards in the city, including a Pinnacle Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.
