President Donald Trump used his marathon State of the Union speech on Feb. 24 to assail trans youth as he called on states to take drastic steps to further restrict their rights at school.
During a nearly-two-hour speech to Congress, the president voiced his support for policies such as one under consideration in Virginia that would require schools to notify parents if their children identify with a gender that is different than the one they were assigned at birth.
“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,” the president said. “We must ban it.”
The president blasted Democrats who refused to applaud those remarks, calling them “crazy.”
Trump further sought to make his case by bringing Liberty University student Sage Blair, and the student’s grandmother, Michele Blair, who sued the school board in Appomattox County after she said Sage was prodded by school counselors to embrace a new name, adopt masculine pronouns, and use the boys’ bathroom. The grandmother’s lawsuit claimed Sage “suffered a psychotic breakdown and decided to run away” when family members learned about her gender identity. Sage was subsequently kidnapped after running away, according to the grandmother’s lawsuit.
Trump’s rhetoric coincides with his administration’s efforts to comprehensively erase transgender individuals from society through a wide range of actions — mostly through executive orders and threats to slash funding. The White House has sought to restrict gender-affirming care for youth and some adults, prevent trans student-athletes from playing sports in accordance with their gender identity, ban trans service members from the military, and more.
The president’s remarks echoed the kind of messaging he used in advertisements during the 2024 presidential campaign.
“Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation?” Trump said during a campaign stop in Wisconsin in 2024. “Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”
The president’s relentless attacks on trans students demonstrate just how far the White House has strayed from the approach of the Obama administration, which had the Department of Education deliver a guidance letter to school districts nationwide explaining that the Department’s Office of Civil Rights would investigate claims of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. In doing so, the Department of Education followed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which had interpreted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban employment discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity. The Biden administration took a similar approach as the Obama administration, but faced significant resistance in federal courts.
On the day of Trump’s State of the Union, Equality Virginia, which organizes and advocates across the state in support of LGBTQ people, posted a graphic on social media, stating, “Medical decisions belong with: Patients, Families, Providers. Not the president.”
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Union, made no mention of LGBTQ individuals.
