To most political observers, President Donald Trump was never expected to champion transgender rights, but since taking office, Trump-Pence administration attacks on the trans community have been relentless. Since the start of 2017, the White House has instituted a trans military ban, rolled back protections for transgender access to bathrooms and other facilities, and erased references to LGBTQ people from government websites and from federal data, to name but a few of its actions. Recently, the administration let it be known it opposes the Equality Act, a nondiscrimination bill for LGBTQ people, which recently passed the House.

And Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a regulation that rolls back an Obama administration policy designed to protect transgender people from discrimination in health care. The Trump rule removes language from federal health care law that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity.

Yet, when the Trump administration began, with the virulently anti-LGBTQ Vice President Mike Pence at Trump’s side, Democrats shrank from the opportunity to even mention transgender people by name. Various pundits and talk show hosts called the struggles of transgender people “boutique issues” and “campus pet peeves.” In April 2017, David Betras, the longtime chairman of the Mahoning County, Ohio, Democratic Party, told media outlets that he didn’t think Democrats were sending the right message to blue-collar voters.

“While Trump is talking about trade and jobs, they’re still obsessing about which bathrooms people should be allowed to go into,” said Betras, who stepped down as chair earlier this month.

“Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd asked Senator Sherrod Brown to respond to Betras’ remarks. CNN journalist Chris Cuomo pressed Senator Bernie Sanders on the issue, as well. Neither senator’s response included the words “transgender people,” although, to Brown’s credit, he acknowledged this was a matter of civil rights. When Cuomo asked Sanders what he would say to people who thought Democrats are “more concerned with bathrooms people go into [than] how they earn a living,” Sanders said it was a “very fair question.” He then pivoted to discuss wealth inequality.