An ACLU lawyer is under fire for appearing to solicit underage transgender people to message him privately.
Chase Strangio, a trans man who is a staff lawyer with the ACLU and whose writing has appeared in Slate, made a tweet on March 14 encouraging “trans youth” to message him on Instagram, stating that he was willing to spend “one hour per day” video chatting with them.
Concerned Twitter users immediately began slamming Strangio for what appeared to be a major safeguarding issue. Journalist Helen Joyce called Strangio out for soliciting private direct messages from minors..
No adult should solicit private chats & DMs from kids. It's an unforgivable breach of child safeguarding rules. It undermines the lessons parents and schools teach children about staying safe online. It risks tarring an entire community as careless of children, and perhaps worse https://t.co/aZAU20lRn4
— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) March 16, 2020
Others were concerned about Strangio “normalizing adult-child private video chats,” something which might have dire consequences for those youth who might not be able to differentiate a caring adult from one with more malicious intentions.
Normalising adult-child private chat/DM/video chat is a recipe for disaster. There is no way to tell adults who genuinely only want to provide support apart from those who seek to groom & abuse. My abuse at 11yrs old started online in what seemed to be a genuine offer of support.
— Hetty Song ?? ? (@SongHetty) March 16, 2020
The tremendous backlash caused Strangio to delete his tweet, complaining that it has caused him to receive “unwarranted and relentless harassment.”
I am deleting the tweets that have triggered a mass of unwarranted and relentless harassment. Not worth it. I will continue to work on mutual aid and support projects but not through any direct engagement on here.
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) March 16, 2020
He continued with later tweets, blaming the backlash on TERFs, trans exclusionary radical feminists, and choosing to “take a break” from social media.
My account has been overrun with TERFs. Taking a break from this platform. ??
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) March 16, 2020
His final tweet was not well-received, with many taking issue with Strangio’s apparent lack of willingness to acknowledge the issue with soliciting private messages from minors, and writing the negative response off as anti-trans sentiment.
Why is safeguarding vulnerable children considered to be anti-trans?
— Professional_Judy (@ProfessionalJu2) March 16, 2020
Doesn’t make sense.
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