LGBTQ+

When I was growing up in the UK there were similar restrictions in place, and due to the oppressive environment I grew up in, I didn't realise I was bi until my mid-20s, and didn't know I was trans until my late 30s, even though I could have been aware sooner if I'd just... understood it.

This regressive attitude (coupled with the direct erosion of the already-atrocious trans healthcare provision) is plainly an attempt to make people stay in the closet and not even know where the doors are, or that there even is a closet - and that's the best case outcome of this (the worst of course being a more direct reduction in numbers of non-cisheteronormative people due to declining mental health).

The one solace we have is that this garbage is the result of the death throes of a government desperate to do as much harm as possible while it still can. At most there's only 8 months left before there must be an election, and they are widely expected to suffer their worst defeat in history. We just need to demand better of our next administration (I will leave specific details of how up to the reader to infer).