Sage Blair Spotlighted During State of the Union Exchange on Trans Youth

At the State of the Union on Tuesday, sage blair and her mother Michele were seated as special guests in Washington, D. C., while President Donald Trump used their story in a wider attack on trans kids. The president’s remarks prompted Democrats to stay seated and Republicans to stand in applause, and the episode has fed proposals for new Virginia rules on parental notification and pronoun use in schools.

State of the Union moment

Near the start of his lengthy and lie-drenched State of the Union speech, President Donald Trump pointed to Democratic members of Congress and exclaimed, "These people are crazy! I’m telling ya — they’re crazy. " At that moment, Democrats were refusing to stand and applaud when the president called for "a nationwide ban on the ability for trans kids to exist in public" and said, "We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately. " He 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, " language delivered alongside a note in the context that his administration "has a standing policy of ripping children from their parents’ arms. " Republican members of Congress — described in the context as supporters of industrial-scale family separations — rose in a standing ovation.

Sage Blair and Appomattox lawsuit

Sage Blair, identified in the speech as a Virginia teen and a student at Liberty University, attended the address with her mother Michele as the president’s special guests. Michele is suing the Appomattox County School Board and in 2023 filed a lawsuit against multiple Appomattox County Schools officials, alleging they concealed information about Sage’s gender identity and bullying and saying that concealment ultimately contributed to Sage’s decision to run away. Michele says that after Sage ran away, she was kidnapped, raped and sex-trafficked across state lines.

Trans kids and health care bans

The president’s comments linked to an ongoing policy push: gender-affirming health care for trans youth is already banned or restricted in at least 27 states, and the thing the president appeared to be seeking to ban in his remarks would extend to the ability of trans kids to socially transition safely in school. The story of sage blair is being used as the 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.

Legislation to force parental notification

The proposed law described in the context would essentially mandate forced outing and, as stated, "would put thousands of trans kids at risk. " The same political actors pushing parental-rights arguments are also pushing laws that would punish parents who support their children’s transition, and a suite of measures — health care bans, school sports bans, bathroom bans, bans on obtaining the correct identification, and bans on socially transitioning at school — are described as combining to make it impossible for many trans kids to live safely and flourish into trans adults.

Reactions and political stakes

Democratic leaders were criticized in the context for failing to robustly oppose what was called "eliminationist efforts, " repeatedly ceding rhetorical ground to the anti-trans right. The piece of the political argument captured the idea of a false dichotomy in which supporting trans people is cast as at odds with so-called kitchen-table issues. With midterm elections approaching, the context states that Trump will inevitably escalate these attacks on trans kids.

Vernadette Broyles, who represents Michele through the Child & Parental Rights Campaign, said in a press release that the invitation to the State of the Union address "highlights the national conversation on putting parental involvement and child safety first. "

Just last week, Democratic California Gov. G — unclear in the provided context.

The sequence of events in the provided context is: Michele filed a 2023 lawsuit against multiple Appomattox County Schools officials and is suing the Appomattox County School Board; Michele alleges officials concealed Sage’s gender identity and bullying; Michele says Sage ran away and was subsequently kidnapped, raped and sex-trafficked across state lines; both Sage and Michele attended the State of the Union as special guests; President Trump used their story in a call to ban social transitions and other rights for trans kids, saying "We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately, " and prompting a standing ovation from Republican members of Congress while Democrats stayed seated.

Closing: The exchange at the State of the Union placed Sage Blair’s story at the center of a national argument over parental notification, school policy, and a slate of bans affecting trans youth, and it has been tied in the provided context to new Virginia legislative proposals and broader political stakes ahead of midterm elections.