Chase Strangio is a fierce advocate for civil rights for LGBTQ+ people, serving as legal counsel in ACLU cases that successfully ensured that trans people could not be banned from restrooms that matched their gender, defended the right of trans soldiers to serve in the military, and affirmed that the Civil Rights Act protected against discrimination against queer workers. The legal community remains a powerful counterweight against the illegal and extrajudicial abuses aimed at the LGBTQ+ community, and leaders like Strangio are vital to ensuring that justice happens the first time.

Unfortunately, the backlash against queer rights, and particularly trans rights, remains strong, with a federal administration and Supreme Court that are eager to roll back the hardwon rights and protections the community has fought for over the last century. In 2024, Strangio became the first trans lawyer to argue in front of the US Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti, challenging a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors. Unfortunately, the Court upheld the state ban in a 6-3 decision that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health called “a dangerous setback for transgender health and human rights in the United States.” Advocates like Strangio remind us that progress is rarely linear—and that showing up, even against long odds, is its own form of justice.

Strangio currently serves as Co-Director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project as well as a nationally recognized expert on transgender rights. Like Elissa Gray, FVAP’s Staff Attorney leading the Lifeline to Justice Initiative, he was an Equal Justice Works fellow where he acted as the Director of Prisoner Justice Initiatives at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and co-founded the Lorena Borjas Community Fund to provide bail assistance to queer immigrants in criminal and immigration cases.

FVAP’s 14th annual Battle of the Bands kicks off in just over a week! Watch Bay Area attorneys trade the courtroom for the stage, competing for the title of Best Lawyer Band in the Bay—all to support legal aid for survivors. Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, all ticket purchases made before June 25th will be matched up to $10,000. That doubles your impact for survivors and doubles the votes you cast for your band. Buy your ticket now and your support goes twice as far in every direction.

Supporting a specific band? Make sure to choose your band during checkout. One dollar donated equals one vote, and remember every dollar now counts double, so vote early and vote often!

The bands are ready, the stage is lit, the crowd is hyped. But who decides who wins? Meet the judges tasked with finding the best of the best.

Megan Correa, LiL MC
LiL MC is a bilingual rapper, singer, producer, and battle rap champion from the San Francisco Bay Area. Classically trained in piano, she taught herself to rap as a teen and quickly carved her lane in the underground battle scene, becoming one of the only women to take home championship titles. She effortlessly flows between English and Spanish, weaving sharp punchlines with hypnotic hooks over beats that fuse raw Hip Hop with Latin rhythms, trap, punk, favela funk, and global sounds. Inspired by cyberpunk futurism, her music and visuals explore dystopian themes with a fierce feminine edge. Featured on NBA 2K21, NBA Top Shot, Billboard Hip Hop, and in independent films, she’s also shared stages with icons like Too Short, E-40 and D12. As the founder of Queens of the Underground, she creates space for women to rise in Hip Hop while building a genre-bending universe entirely her own.

Suzanna Sitomer, Harmony Project Oakland
Suzanna Sitomer is a credentialed string music educator with 23 years of experience in four states, in 4 countries, and on three continents. Growing up in inner city Washington, D.C., she developed a strong sense of community through her training at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and the D.C. Youth Orchestra. Suzanna earned her bachelor’s in Music Education and Technology in Music from the Oberlin Conservatory, and a master’s in educational leadership and change from the Hong Kong Education University, specializing in arts administration and inquiry-based learning. Since moving to the Bay area in 2018, her sense of community led her to found Harmony Project Oakland and Oakland Music Matters, organizations which offer and collaborate with music and arts programs working in underserved communities, especially East Oakland. She lives in Oakland with her two children and two cats.

Eli Reyes, Ritmos Tropicosmos
For over a decade, Eli Reyes has cultivated microcosms of belonging for artists and subcultures in the East Bay. Reyes currently brings that passion to the stage with electro-trio Tropisphere, and as the charismatic, body-shaking front woman of Ritmos Tropicosmos!

Tropisphere has a show on June 27 at Eli’s in Oakland with Lahorka, and you can catch Ritmos Tropicosmos at The Chapel on July 14 opening for Mohama Saz.

Pictured: Erica Ettinger (CLA SoCal), Jessica Wcislo (BayLegal and former FVAP law clerk), Brenda Adams (BayLegal), Sonya Winner (Covington), Ellen Choi (Covington), Sarah O'Farrell (Covington), and Eva Dorrough (Covington)

When a survivor leaves a dangerous relationship and goes to court, they rely on the legal system to help them protect themselves. But across California, a systemic failure is quietly undermining their ability to fight back: verbatim records are not being created, and recordings are not available to survivors or their advocates. Without a court reporter, there is no official record of what a judge said, what evidence was presented, or what went wrong. And without a record, there is often no appeal. The California Supreme Court put it plainly: the absence of a court reporter "will frequently be fatal" to a case.

On June 3, 2026, the Court heard oral arguments in the case from Sonya Winner (Covington & Burling LLP) on behalf of FVAP and Bay Area Legal Aid, respondent Superior Courts, the California Attorney General, and amicus curiae Service Employees International Union California State Council (SEIU). The Justices’ thorough questioning was encouraging, demonstrating that they care about reaching the right decision here and recognize the harms of depriving low-income litigants of a verbatim record.  

“We are incredibly grateful the Supreme Court heard our case today,” said Jennafer Dorfman Wagner, Director of Programs at the Family Violence Appellate Project.  “With more than a million civil and family court hearings going unreported every year, this critical access to justice issue urgently needs to be addressed.”  Brenda Star Adams, Litigation Director at Bay Area Legal Aid, agreed, stating, “Today the voices of millions of litigants were heard by the highest court in our State.  We are grateful that, by hearing this case, the Court recognizes the importance of the rights of low-income Californians to a verbatim record and equal access to justice.”

Watch a recording of oral arguments on the Court’s website. A decision is expected by September 6, 2026.

Our co-counsel in the case is Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and ADZ Law LLP. 

Why did you join the FVAP Board of Directors?
I joined because of how much leverage appellate work has. A single appeal can change the outcome for many trial cases that follow, and that kind of impact is rare. When the chance to get more involved came up, I took it. 

What’s something you wish more people knew about FVAP?
FVAP wins a significant number of the affirmative appeals it brings for survivors, especially versus the statewide average, and I believe we have won nearly all of the appeals we have defended. Most people assume an appeal is a long shot, and for these cases with this team, it isn't. 

What's the most rewarding thing about serving on the Board?
The staff. Boards aren't involved in day-to-day operations by design, so I rarely get to credit staff directly for specific wins. But watching what this team accomplishes, often without much outside recognition, has been the most rewarding part of serving.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Uniformly distrust your sense of urgency. Most things feel urgent; very few are. Your reptilian brain will try to convince you otherwise. 

In 2025, FVAP continued to move forward with strength and clarity. Even as funding for social justice grew tighter and requests for our services surged, we kept fighting for survivors, expanding appellate representation, strengthening pro bono partnerships, deepening survivor-centered advocacy, and investing in training across the legal community. This work is often unseen, but its ripple effects are profound.

What makes me most proud is not only what we accomplished, but how. With integrity. With collaboration. With care. Over 500 attorneys and paralegals offered pro bono support in 2025, with 35 firms contributing more than 8,000 hours, enabling FVAP to operate like a large law firm on a fraction of the budget.

—Deborah Son, FVAP Executive Director

Read the full report to explore the appellate wins, learn about a landmark California Supreme Court case, and the community dedication your support helped make possible.