Alexander Chen (LGBT policy advocate)
Alexander Chen (LGBT policy advocate)
Alexander L. Chen is a lawyer and policy advocate. He specializes in civil rights advocacy for people who identify as transgender .
He now works for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
Early Life & Education
Chen, who was born in Colorado, is the son of Chinese immigrants. He holds a B.A. in English literature from University of Oxford. a Master's in English & Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
He has also written on trans issues for the Harvard Law Review .
Career
Alex Chen started working as a law clerk after his first year of law school.
In the summer of 2013, he has worked as an intern at the ACLU. There, he worked on LGBT & AIDS Project cases.
In 2014, he moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the U.S. Department of Justice; he was in the Civil Rights Division, Educational Opportunities section. Later that year, he served as a law clerk at the National Center for Transgender Equality.
After graduating from Harvard Law, he worked for the U.S.
District Court's Southern District of California for Gonzalo P. Curiel.
In September 2016, he also clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals' 9th Circuit for M. Margaret McKeown.
In September 2017, Chen became an Equal Justice Works Fellow.
He is currently working on strategic impact litigation to expand the rights of transgender children beyond Title IX.
He also co-founded and is the current secretary for the National Trans Bar Association.
Awards & Accomplishments
In 2013, Alex Chen became the first openly transgender editor of the Harvard Law Review Harvard Law Review (volume 127).
In May 2014, Chen was selected to receive the Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellowship, a $90,000 grant; he was one of 1200 applicants and one of 30 scholars accepted.
In November 2017, he was in the Forbes 30 Under 30 for 2018; he was listed in the 'Law & Policy' category. [1]
Personal Life
Chen currently lives in San Francisco, California with his wife and cat.