Trump complimented his peers and guests at the State of the Union Address February 24, among them Sage Blair. He called for both Blair and her grandmother to stand for applause, and stated that “Sage was thrown into an all-boys state home, and suffered terribly for a long time.” Trump continued, “But today, Sage is a proud young woman with a full-ride scholarship.” After his praise, the two women stood up. Sage’s grandmother applauded Trump and her child while Sage stood motionless with what appeared to be a forced and only slight smile.
Blair was 14 when she socially transitioned in her high school in 2021 without her parents’ knowledge. Staff and faculty allowed Blair to use her preferred pronouns and the boys’ bathroom. But because of bullying, she ran away from home, resulting in an eight-month disappearance, along with being sexually trafficked.
Once she returned to her Virginia hometown, grandmother Michele Blair filed to sue Appomattox County School Board, claiming that the school’s lack of notification on Blair’s mental health “violated her fundamental right to direct upbringing of S.B [Sage Blair].” This lawsuit led to the creation of “Sage’s Law,” an act that Trump wants other states to adopt.
Introduced in 2023, Sage’s Law was a Virginia bill that required school faculty to disclose to a child’s parent when they use pronouns that are different from their biological gender.
Trump and other advocates say the bill is needed to protect parental rights, arguing that parents should be involved in their child’s mental health. Others say that it’s “forcibly outing” children, creating dangers and warping the relationship of children’s parents who wouldn’t agree with transitioning.
Another bill Trump highlighted was the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or “SAVE Act.” To reduce voter fraud, the SAVE Act will require Americans to bring a form of citizenship when registering to vote. The three forms of accepted identification are passports, birth certificates, and REAL IDs.
SAVE ACT effects on Trans and Woman voters
This bill has created a lot of controversy. If enacted, millions of Americans, including Trans people and women, won’t be allowed to cast their vote.
About 140 million Americans do not have a passport, and 21 million Americans don’t have access to their birth certificates. Meaning a majority of people will either have to find a form of citizenship ID or order a new one before elections.
Trans and women’s communities have a greater chance of having mismatched information on their documents because of name changes or gender markers. The Gallup poll revealed that 1.3 percent of Americans are transgender, equal to about 3.3 million eligible voters. Out of that 1.3 percent, about 75 percent of the transgender population voted in the 2020 election, compared to the 67 percent of general voters.
Transgender individuals are known as active voters, but if the SAVE Act is accepted, a massive portion of them will become ineligible. According to the 2020 U.S Transgender Survey, 44 percent of transgender adults have updated their IDs. Only 18 percent of those adults have changed their birth certificates to correlate with their preferred gender and name.
The same can be said for women, as many of them have changed their names because of marriage and divorce. The Center for American Progress, or CAP, wrote that “as many as 69 million American women do not have a birth certificate with their legal name on it and thereby could not use their birth certificate to prove citizenship.”