Exactly. And don’t let embarrassment stop you from discussing this with your doctor, and don’t underplay your symptoms. I had years of symptoms before they got bad enough for me to be honest with my doctor, and once I was, he scheduled me for a colonoscopy immediately. There was a 1.5” tumour. I was in my 30s and cancer never crossed my mind.

I don’t think those people would use the term “regressive,” because that term has inherent negative connotations. Their goal isn’t so much to “regress” as it is to “conserve” - maintain the values and power structures of the past. What a progressive would call progress, they would see as a decline. What they’re losing by ceding LGBTQ+ rights is more subtle than losing their own rights - they’re losing (or think they’re losing) status, privilege, moral authority. Their position in the social hierarchy drops if there are fewer people to look down on.

A man stopped my son with his hand from crossing at the signal because a car didn’t see him and could have mowed him down. I think a lot about how that could have gone badly if the man had second guessed himself for even a moment. Legally and socially, we need to be on the side of anyone who makes a split second decision to help in a crisis.