A trans man who's changed hearts and minds in the South takes his work nationwide at the helm of GenderCool

Chase Glenn, a transgender man who has led the largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization in South Carolina, is coming on to the national stage as the new executive director of the GenderCool Project.

“I feel so deeply connected to this work that I’m stepping into,” Glenn tells The Advocate.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.

Glenn will succeed Jen Grosshandler, who founded the Chicago-based organization with her husband, John, and Gearah Goldstein in 2018.

“When we launched GenderCool and I became executive director, I said to myself I’m going to do this until it’s time for me to step to the side,” Jen Grosshandler says. Now the time has come, she says, to pass the torch of this “tiny but mighty nonprofit.”

The impetus for the founding of GenderCool was when the Grosshandlers’ daughter, Chazzie, came out as trans in 2017. The couple looked for positive stories about trans and nonbinary people throughout the media but instead found nothing but negative and misleading content. So the Grosshandlers and Goldstein founded GenderCool to get positive stories out in newspapers, television shows, movies, and more through a group of young trans and nonbinary people the organization calls “Champions.”

To find a new executive director, GenderCool conducted a yearlong nationwide search. “We spent the time, and we were focused, and we were patient,” Jen Grosshandler says. The result: “We’re welcoming an extraordinary person, a proud trans man, who will lead GenderCool at this critical time in history,” she says.

Glenn was drawn to GenderCool’s mission, he says. “GenderCool is such a unique organization in that it is so purely focused on storytelling,” he says. “I have seen the power of storytelling, how it can change people.”

He comes to GenderCool from the Alliance for Full Acceptance in South Carolina. He was its executive director from 2017 to 2021, then again from 2023 to the present, with a stint on the staff of a medical university in between. He’s originally from a small town in Illinois, and he’s been in South Carolina for 19 years. It’s one of the most hostile states for LGBTQ+ people, but still he can point to some accomplishments.

The AFFA, based in Charleston, has two arms, one focusing on education and community engagement, working with business, health care providers, and law enforcement on cultural competency, plus a nearly annual media campaign. The other arm does legislative advocacy lobbying, supports out candidates for office, and informs the public where the candidates stand.

“It’s an uphill battle here,” he admits, but there have been some victories. In the past five years, close to 100 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been filed in the state legislature, but the vast majority have stalled. “A lot of states haven’t seen that level of success,” he says, although some bad bills have passed, including one that bans both gender-affirming care for trans minors and the use of Medicaid funds for this care for adults.

“What I see in South Carolina is that we are in a very polarized moment,” he says, so AFFA has sought to reach people in the “movable middle” — those who are uninformed or misinformed about LGBTQ+ people and issues.

“That is where our inroads are in South Carolina,” he says. “Our work has been looking for that middle ground where we can change hearts and minds. That is where GenderCool works too. That’s why I am optimistic — our stories will always resonate.”

Jen Grosshandler also notes Glenn’s optimism. “What I got from him immediately, in the first five seconds, was this incredible optimism,” she says.

Erik Day, who is on GenderCool’s board of directors and chaired the executive director search committee, sings Glenn’s praises too. Glenn, Day says, is “someone who understood the mission and recognized the need to reach the movable middle — who better to understand that than a trans man out of South Carolina.”

Glenn says his life is an example of the power of storytelling. He had a relatively conservative upbringing in a religious family, almost studied for the ministry, and worked in churches before he came out. He came out as gay before coming out as trans and was fired from a church job when he was outed as gay. Then he started to understand gender identity more, he says. Now 46, he began his medical transition about 10 years ago.

His parents thought they didn’t know anyone who was trans, but with knowing him, they became “incredibly supportive,” he says. It’s an example of shifting people’s perspective: example of shifting perspective, realizing “if Chase is trans and I love Chase, he’s still the same person,” he says. His mother died six years ago, and his father and two older sisters continue to be supportive, he notes.

He and his wife, Colleen, and their children, ages 4 and 6, will soon relocate to Chicago. His first day with GenderCool will be May 5.

Glenn, Grosshandler, and Day acknowledge that this is a hard time for LGBTQ+ Americans, especially those who are trans or nonbinary, with attacks coming from the White House and state legislatures. But, Grosshandler says, “I am convinced that everyday folks don’t want this and are frustrated.” Plus, “over half of country says they’ve never met a young trans or nonbinary person,” she says. GenderCool, through its staff and its 20 Champions, is working to change that.

“I am optimistic,” she says. “I live my life as a founder of this nonprofit and the parent of a transgender daughter with the knowledge that hundreds of thousands of families [with trans or nonbinary children] are here in our country. These kids are leaders in our middle schools, high schools, college campuses. I continue to be so crystal clear about the future because I’m surrounded by this next generation of leaders. They know that all people should have and must have access to all fundamental human rights. We will not stop until that’s achieved.”

Glenn has been able to change hearts and minds in South Carolina, so “just imagine what he’s able to do with a national organization,” she says.

Glenn says GenderCool has already achieved much. “I can’t overstate just how impressed I am by all that GenderCool has been able to accomplish,” he says.

“The magic of GenderCool are these Champions and their families,” he adds. “I really cannot wait to get to know these Champions and their families."