In A Grace Note, An Anti-Trans Provision Was Stripped from Trump's 'Beautiful' Tax-and-Spending Bill

Economic experts warn that the "Big Beautiful Bill" signed into law on July 4 will saddle the country with trillions in additional debt thanks to fiscal priorities that benefit the rich while leaving hungry Americans hungrier and depriving millions of other Americans of health care.

But one mote of hope shone through: The bill's omnibus package initially took aim at trans people by seeking to outlaw the use of Medicaid dollars "for 'gender transition procedures' for people of all ages, and introduced narrowly rigid definitions of 'sex,' 'female,' and 'male' that some experts believe would have far-reaching implications, beyond access to healthcare," Rolling Stone explained.

That part of the bill was scrapped, though, "after the Senate parliamentarian found it did not comply with the Byrd Rule," Pink News reports.

Because Republicans wished to avoid a filibuster from Democrats over the measure, they passed it under the rules of budget reconciliation – but that came with a cost: Under the Byrd rule, bills passed that way must contain only relevant language.

The Senate Parliamentarian homed in on the anti-trans measure as not meeting that criteria.

The Human Rights Campaign's Delphine Luneau told RS, "There's a lot of other elements of the bill that are concerning, but for me and for other trans folks, it's a huge relief to see this out of the bill."

With enough support, Senate Republicans could have overridden the Parliamentarian, but that would have required a separate vote on just the measure in question. Whether they feared the required 60 votes would not materialize, or whether they felt the press of time due to the president's demand that the bill be on his desk in time for a July 4 signing, GOP senators simply dropped the measure.

Sinead Murano-Kinney of Advocates for Trans Equality told RS, "Fortunately, Republicans' efforts to make trans people and their healthcare into political scapegoats failed," and added that it was "in no small part thanks to the wisdom of the parliamentarian and the actions of Senators who respect and will fight for their trans constituents' well-being and access to lifesaving care."

Other measures that passed muster and remained in the bill still affect the prospects for trans people's medically appropriate care, however. One of those measures suspended federal money for health services that provide abortions – a not-so-veiled attack on Planned Parenthood, which, in addition to serving women's health in far more numerous capacities than simply providing abortions, is also a major provider for trans health.

The HRC's David Stacy told RS, "The defunding of Planned Parenthood is going to be incredibly harmful, because Planned Parenthood is perhaps the largest provider of healthcare to trans people as any single provider."

The bill's provisions affect the rest of the LGBTQ+ community, as well – particularly low-income people living with HIV who are dependent on Medicaid for their anti-retrorivrals. While it massively cuts taxes for the country's top earners, the law also reportedly guts Medicaid funding to the tune of $1 trillion over the next decade.

Stacy noted to RS that Medicaid is "the largest payer for HIV care in the country," and added that the new law is "going to really have an impact on LGBTQ people across the board, since LGBTQ people – especially when people living with HIV – are disproportionately [on] Medicaid.

"And certainly," Stacy added, "the LGBTQ community has a higher incidence of poverty than other folks."

But queer Americans are far from the only ones facing punitive health and economic consequences. The bill's defunding of Medicaid and the changes it mandates to how easily people can maintain their ACA coverage is expected to impact as many as 17 millions Americans across the board – many of them in the rural areas that went for Trump in the last election.