Saige Blair, the young victim of sexual harassment and abuse whom Trump has turned into a symbol of his anti-trans agenda

The next year was a real nightmare. He went through bullying, sexual assaultkidnapping, rape, exploitation and for the protection of the State. All before turning 16.

Now, her story has ended up at the center of the American political debate, converted into Donald Trump’s great argument in his cultural war on gender identity.

Sage Blair grew up in an environment already marked by fragility. She was adopted by her grandparents — whom she calls her parents — after going through the foster system. Her biological father had died and her mother could not care for her.

With puberty came problems: depression, self-harm, eating disorders and even episodes of hallucinations. In the summer of 2021 she was admitted to a psychiatric center for a week. Shortly afterward he received a diagnosis of severe gender dysphoriainformation that her grandmother claims was hidden from her.

That same summer, when he started high school, he began using a male name—Draco—at school. At home, I was still Sage.

According to the lawsuit filed by his family in 2023, the school managed this situation without informing them. The district maintains that it acted in accordance with the regulations and that it was the minor herself who asked for confidentiality for fear of reprisals. In fact, in internal documents, the student would have expressed her fear of the reaction of her grandparents, who were extremely religious, and her willingness not to address that issue at home.

There lies the most controversial point of the case: not so much the identity itself, but who had the information and who was left out, with the life of a minor being at stake.

Bullying at school

His time at the institute was brief, just two weeks.

From the second day of school, Sage began to receive ridicule and threats from other students, especially on the school bus. The situation escalated quickly. A counselor talked to her about her identity and, after learning that she preferred to be treated like a boy, allowed him to use a male name and the men’s bathroom.

In the following days, several students followed her to the bathroom, touched her without consent, threatened to rape her at knifepoint, and pushed her against a wall in the hallway.

The center recognizes the incidents, but denies negligence.

In a meeting with the counselor, Sage described as “rape” what he later specified as inappropriate touching. The counselor’s intervention focused on warning him about the seriousness of these types of accusationsinstead of taking action against the students involved.

The episode reflects the confusion around what happened, but does not eliminate the central fact: there was a sexual assault and a risky situation that was not contained. In less than two weeks, the institute stopped being an educational space and became a hostile environment.

And then Sage was gone.

An escape marked by violence

The night his grandmother found his student card with the name Draco and his photo, tried to stop the situation. He told her she wouldn’t have to go back to class. But that same morning, Sage fled through the window.

What came next is the most brutal part of the case.

According to the lawsuit, he contacted a man through a website linked to the LGBTQ environment that had been recommended to him in the school environment. That man kidnapped her, raped her and took her to Washington. There she suffered further abuse, including episodes of sexual exploitation. Eight days later she was located by the police.

But the rescue did not end the danger.

A public defender convinced the juvenile judge so that he would not return homeclaiming that she did not feel safe there and that her family would not accept her identity. In this process the diagnosis of gender dysphoria came to light.

The court ordered his admission to a male juvenile center.

There, she was again sexually assaulted, consumed drugs and did not receive adequate medical or psychological care. Two months later, ran away again.

So he traveled to Texas to meet someone he had met online, a supposed 16 year old skater. She is captured again by an adult, who drugs her, abuses her and detains her for weeks. She is not located until more than two months later.

From court case to political symbol

Sage is 19 years old today. He lives again with his family in Virginia, has finished high school remotely and is pursuing university studies at a Christian center. Has re-identified as a woman and has chosen not to speak publicly about what happened. Her story, however, continues to speak for her.

When her grandmother took the case to court in 2023, she raised two issues: whether the school had excluded the family from relevant decisions and whether the system had failed to protect her from harassment.

The first one did not prosper. A judge dismissed it in 2024.

But that is precisely where the debate lies today.

The Sage Blair case has become one of the most visible examples of one of the deepest cracks in the United States: the extent to which schools must manage the gender identity of minors without involving their families. A conflict that crosses laws, courts and educational systems without political consensus.

A few weeks ago, her story returned to the forefront as an argument in that debate in Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech, where the president used Sage to defend the idea that parents should know and decide. Right now, in the US only 15 states require educators to inform parents if their children use a different gender identity at school.

But that’s just one part.

What is barely talked about is the instance of his case that is still open: if the center ignored risk signs and did not act in time. And, above all, who is responsible for everything that came after.

This is uncomfortable and is the ignored part of their story.

The chain of errors and omissions by various administrations—school, justice, social services—in which no system knew how to act in time.

And that changes the question..

It’s not just who should decide.

That’s why no one managed to protect her.