At school I remember our English teacher reeling off the definition of pathetic fallacy – “when nature responds to man’s predicament” and it always felt to me that, of course, if I was sad, so would nature be. Today those two words rolled round in my head all day, screaming to be spoken.

Back then I saw no boundary between me and the natural world or anyone else. My life, my interests, my time had always been interwoven with sky, pool, butterfly, oak, stickleback, spider. Friends were friends, full stop.

Yet somewhere along the line, that connection to all is frayed or broken. We move from we to us and them. Lines divide and disconnect, despite how much we wish it not so.

40 something years later, this week has been heartbreaking, for the new lines drawn, for the alienation in the false name of protection. Human rights mean all humans, not a chosen selection of humans. Protecting human rights of one group at the expense of another is discrimination, pure and simple, not action. I weep and rage for all we have lost this week. All the years of action and recognition and moves towards equality lost on one sweep of a hand. I weep for all who will live in deeper fear, from a pointless ruling (even to those who believe it offers them protection, when in fact it does the opposite) yet one so harmful to so many. Pathetic fallacy indeed.

And since then, it has rained and rained and rained. It seems fitting, as if Mother Nature herself weeps with us.

Trans and non binary friends and allies, I stand with you. You are seen, welcomed, loved, with me and in any spaces I hold.