Chase Strangio appears in Heightened Scrutiny by Sam Feder, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Heightened Scrutiny Review: An Urgent Snapshot of the Fight for Trans Rights and Human Rights

Sundance 2025

/
8 mins read

Heightened Scrutiny
(USA, 89 min.)
Dir. Sam Feder
Programme: Premieres (World premiere)

 

A film so utterly of the moment that it contains events that transpired one week to the day before its announcement as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival line-up, Heightened Scrutiny succinctly captures why the fights for transgender rights should concern every person in the United States of America. While this immediacy to ongoing events inevitably means that it feels like an unfinished film, Heightened Scrutiny tees up an essential and accessible backgrounder for a pivotal moment.

This urgent snapshot of history in the making follows attorney Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union as he becomes the first openly trans person to argue before the Supreme Court. Tackling the case of LW v. Skrmetti and seeking to overturn Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, Strangio smartly takes a cue from one of the Supreme Court’s own legends: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He argues that to distinguish against trans youth among care afforded to cisgender peers continues gender-based discrimination. In short, upholding the law sets a grievous precedent.

Heightened Scrutiny follows Strangio as he prepares to argue before the Court on December 4, 2024. Strangio meets with young people who want their desire and need for gender-affirming care to be heard. The film takes the ACLU lawyer to school assemblies where trans teens and their families make their cases, but representatives sent to hear their words can’t be bothered to put down their phones.

Director Sam Feder (Disclosure) observes a system that’s inherently stacked against marginalised communities, underscoring the need for the Court to exercise heightened scrutiny in this case. The clause, also known as intermediate scrutiny, requires lawmakers to evaluate if policies meet standards of public interest and do not discriminate against people based on factors such as gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. (Echoes of segregation laws run throughout the case.) The concept proves especially powerful with regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, something that’s pressingly on the table amid the Trump administration’s rampage on American democracy in the mere days following the events of the film.

Strangio’s case specifically deals with puberty blockers and hormone therapy as forms of gender-affirming care for America’s young people. (The case doesn’t deal with surgery.) This case has high stakes as 23 states passed related anti-trans between 2021 and 2024. Strangio explains that these cases deal with increasingly suspect evidence to support the arguments. The fact-checked and objective science supports the rights of these kids to receive such care to align their bodies with their identities. The maturation effects of puberty could lead teens to grow up in bodies they don’t recognize, or could cause bodily changes that would be more likely to necessitate future surgery.

Heightened Scrutiny observes how these anti-trans policies follow the rise of discriminatory and transphobic coverage in outlets like the New York Times. Sensationalist headlines and bigoted op-eds pass through the Times’ supposedly rigorous fact-checkers. A stream of articles means that the wide reach of the once-illustrious newspaper inundates readers with articles about the “regrets” of transitioning, the irreversibility of transitioning, and the side effects and risks of surgery. One interviewee points to a 2018 copy of The Atlantic which put a fear-mongering transphobic hit piece as the cover story while the cut line “We’re not ready for the next pandemic” occupied a teensy bit of space in the corner. The film makes a compelling case that America needs to get its priorities straight.

Strangio and the chorus of talking heads, most of whom speak from their experiences as trans people, observe the pervasive effects of such irresponsible journalism. The film notes how such articles shape public perception and inevitably the minds of lawmakers who read mainstream news. Moreover, Strangio observes how these articles quickly serve as evidence in arguments put before the court, which sets a dangerous precedent when content created for the metrics driven environment of online journalism inevitably favours quick hits and sensationalism over long-form in-depth science-based reportage. And, let’s face it: a news article is not the same as a legal decision.

Heightened Scrutiny offers audio snippets of Strangio’s arguments before the Supreme Court as he makes the case. Animated soundwaves invite audiences to linger on every word as the judges as questions and he quickly gives them informed, persuasive answers. Justice Sotomayor proves the most inquisitive voice in the clips provided. The back and forth between Strangio and the judges realigns the case away from fake news and towards science and facts, like how the rate of “detransitioning” factors at 1%, while the risks for life-threatening depression caused by denying care are incalculable.

Although audiences don’t hear her voice in the Supreme Court snippets, Strangio’s kind words for Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the controversially conservative Trump appointee, may surprise viewers. Strangio credits her as the Court’s best questioner and admits that the mother of seven may be key to winning the case. It’s a productive observation that sets politics aside in a politically charged national conversation.

Other interviewees that inform the film centre the conversation in joy, rather than fear. Feder’s interviewees speak to the positive benefits of receiving care and affirmation. There’s also just a collective sense of fatigue over the policing and politicization of people’s bodies, offering moments akin the eyewitness testimony that root the stakes of the case in lived experiences.

In between these scenes, Feder provides shots from Strangio’s life outside the circuit as he tends to his asthmatic cat (who takes a puffer much more willingly than mine does) and gathers with friends like actor/producer Elliot Page and drag performer Miss Peppermint to watch the debates as they brace themselves for a second term of Trump. It’s a firsthand account of what it means to live in contemporary America when one’s life is on the line and one’s rights can quickly change with the political tides. As the story continues to unfold and the case awaits its verdict, Heightened Scrutiny offers a window into a few lives among many that the Supreme Court’s decision will shape.

Heightened Scrutiny premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Pat Mullen is the publisher of POV Magazine. He holds a Master’s in Film Studies from Carleton University where his research focused on adaptation and Canadian cinema. Pat has also contributed to outlets including The Canadian Encyclopedia, Paste, That Shelf, Sharp, Xtra, and Complex. He is the vice president of the Toronto Film Critics Association and an international voter for the Golden Globe Awards.

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