Sage Blair Spotlighted as Democrats Stay Seated During State of the Union

sage blair and her mother Michele attended Tuesday’s State of the Union address in Washington, D. C. as invited special guests, and the teen’s story was used prominently in President Donald Trump’s remarks.

Sage Blair at State of the Union

Sage Blair, identified in remarks as a student at Liberty University, and her mother Michele were invited to the address as guests. Michele filed a lawsuit in 2023 against multiple Appomattox County Schools officials, and other coverage notes Michele is suing the Appomattox County School Board. Vernadette Broyles, who represents Michele through the Child & Parental Rights Campaign, said the invitation to the State of the Union address "highlights the national conversation on putting parental involvement and child safety first. " A local segment listed that Armstrong talks with Christian Davis, Cincinnati Parent Empowerment Network, and Philip Derow, former Board member at New Albany Public School.

Democrats stayed seated in chamber

Democratic members of Congress refused to stand and applaud when the president called for a nationwide ban on what he described as actions allowing trans kids "to exist in public. " In the chamber, President Donald Trump pointed to Democratic members and exclaimed, "These people are crazy! I’m telling ya — they’re crazy, " near the start of his lengthy and lie-drenched State of the Union speech. Republican members of Congress rose in a standing ovation; the coverage describes those Republicans as supporters of industrial-scale family separations.

Trump's language and direct quotes

The president said, "We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately, " and later added, "Surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will, " a line delivered alongside a statement in the context that the administration "has a standing policy of ripping children from their parents’ arms. " The speech framed "it" not only as gender-affirming health care for trans youth — health care that the coverage notes is already banned or restricted in at least 27 states — but also as the ability for trans kids to socially transition safely in school.

Allegations, lawsuit, and school claims

Michele alleges members of the Appomattox County school district failed to disclose to the family that Sage was identifying as male, and she says that failure contributed to the teen running away. The coverage notes that after Sage ran away Michele said the teen was kidnapped, raped and sex-trafficked across state lines; other accounts describe the teen as subsequently facing sexual abuse. Those events are central to the legal and political arguments Michele has advanced in her 2023 lawsuit against multiple Appomattox County Schools officials and the action noted against the Appomattox County School Board.

Reaction, risks, and proposed laws

The president’s use of the Blair story has been presented as a basis for proposed Virginia legislation that would force schools to notify parents should a student identify with a gender other than their sex as assigned at birth and would require parental consent to allow a student to use a new name or pronoun in school. Coverage calls such a law "essentially mandating forced outing" and warns it would put thousands of trans kids at risk. The narrative is presented alongside criticism of a wider set of measures — health care bans, school sports bans, bathroom bans, bans on obtaining the correct identification, and bans on socially transitioning at school — and the argument that some anti-trans politicians are pushing laws that could prosecute parents as child abusers if they support their children transitioning. Critics in the coverage say Democratic leaders have not robustly opposed what is described as eliminationist rhetoric and that, with midterm elections approaching, the president will inevitably escalate these attacks on trans kids; the coverage urges Democrats to refuse to take the bait and to remain, at least metaphorically, seated.

All parties named and every element cited here reflect the sequence of events and quotes presented during and around the State of the Union and the legal actions involving Michele and Sage Blair.