President Donald Trump used Tuesday night’s State of the Union address to spotlight a Virginia teenager’s story, casting transgender issues at the center of a deeply divided political debate. During the speech, Trump declared the U.S. was once a dead country, now the hottest in the world, and asserted, “We ended DEI in America.” The White House invited Sage Blair and her mother, Michele Blair, to attend.
Blair’s story has drawn national attention following a 2023 lawsuit filed by her mother, Michele Blair, against the Appomattox County School Board. The suit alleges that the district failed to disclose information about Sage identifying as male. According to reporting by WSET, Michele Blair claimed that the school’s alleged withholding of this information contributed to Sage running away across state lines, where she later experienced abuse. The case remains ongoing.
Trump referenced “Sage’s harrowing story,” accusing school officials of secretly socially transitioning her to a new gender without parental knowledge. He urged Congress to act, saying, “No state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will…We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately.” The Blair family has supported Sage’s Law in Virginia, which would require parental notification if a student discloses being transgender. Civil rights groups call the proposal a forced outing measure.
