As a trans Australian, I was kicked out of a UK toilet. This is not the open-hearted Britain I remember

‘In 15 years of visiting Britain I have been presenting feminine in public without any problem, including using women’s bathrooms.’ Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy

I was visiting family in London when the British supreme court handed down its unexpected ruling: under the Equality Act, sex was now considered “binary” in law, which meant transgender people could be banned from single-sex spaces of their gender identity. The Labour government, which had come into office promising us “dignity”, capitulated. But, not to worry, soothed a minister, Pat McFadden, “There isn’t going to be toilet police.”

A few days later the toilet police got me.