Where the national Democratic party stands on trans issues right now was most clearly illustrated at a recent budget committee meeting for the GOPs so-called One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) ahead of a July 4 passage deadline dictated by the president. During a committee mark-up in May, House Democrats did not contest a provision in the Republicans reconciliation bill that bans Medicaid funds from being used for gender-affirming care for trans people of all ages. Related Support for trans sports participation dropped since states started passing sports bans While Democrats remain more supportive of trans people, support for trans sports participation has dropped since 2021. Democrats didnt offer an amendment to get rid of it, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), who led the ban effort, told NOTUS. They offered an amendment for practically every provision, so this was telling. I think deep down they know theyve lost the issue. 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Subscribe to our Newsletter today That provision marked the first time a federal restriction on gender-affirming care for adults has passed a full chamber of Congress.Months after Republicans pounded Democrats and their standard bearer, Kamala Harris, during the 2024 presidential election over trans rights, Democrats have retrenched and are just looking to cope with Republican dominance on the issue.Theyre also confronting a self-reinforcing cycle of unfavorable news on trans rights, driving poll numbers in support ever downward.Support for trans student-athletes participating in school sports has dropped since states started passing legislation to bar their participation, and the more the president talks about the issue, the more negative the polling becomes.About 52% of Americans now approve of how the administration is handling transgender issues,according to a May pollby the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.At the same time, fewer people support trans people in the military, bans on outing trans and nonbinary students to their parents, and gender-affirming care. The same pollfound that most adults oppose public health insurance programs like Medicare or Medicaid from covering gender-affirming medical treatment.The Supreme Courts recent decision in U.S. v Skrmetti that upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors would have once occasioned Democrats to rally around a civil rights cause at the heart of their agenda, as they did with the high courts decision to overturn Roe v Wade.But rather than galvanizing opposition to gender-affirming care bans around the country, the decision has been largely met by Democrats with qualified opposition or silence. Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX), a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said she believes health care should be at the right and the role of the parent, and the court should have had a different decision.But, she added, The Supreme Court has ruled. Were either a party that supports the rule of law or not.By ruling that gender-affirming care for minors is a states rights issue, the U.S. will have a patchwork of rules around it. Thats the reality Johnson says we have to live with.Trans Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), the first openly transgender member of Congress, said recently that Democrats have to negotiate with the drop in public support for transgender people. We shouldnt treat the public like theyre Republican politicians, she told The New York Times.The best thing for trans people in this moment is for all of us to wake up to the fact that we have to grapple with the world as it is, that we have to grapple with where public opinion is right now, and that we need all of the allies that we can get, McBride said, explaining that Democrats need to create room for disagreement.Like the Supreme Courts ruling in Skrmetti, there is a patchwork of responses to trans issues among Democrats, who are carefully reading their constituencies as they calibrate their positions. Nationally, though, they are at a loss, as seen in House Minority Whip Katherine Clarks (D-MA) contortions to arrive at a position on the issue.We are listening very closely to what the American people are telling us, and theyre telling us theyre in an affordability crisis and we never help people afford housing or health care or childcare by taking away rights from a very, very small group of people.Republicans continue to push this issue as one to divide us, she said.Charlotte Clymer, a trans activist and Democratic strategist, was clearer. Weve been largely abandoned by the Democratic Party, she said.Looking at the past six months or so, its become pretty clear that most federal Democratic lawmakers have no clear or obvious intention in standing beside trans people in this critical moment.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.