text: Bhutan, like most Asian countries, is not particularly appreciative of public displays of affection regardless of sexual orientation.
  Homosexuality has been illegal in Bhutan since 2004, but in 2019 a bill was passed to decriminalise what was known as ‘unnatural sex’.
  LGBTQIA+ people are generally accepted in Bhutan but work still needs to be done to change social attitudes towards those that identify differently.
  Travelling through Bhutan is difficult for those with physical disabilities. There are only a few hotels that have accessible rooms and bathrooms, and it’s rare that buildings will have been adapted for accessibility issues. That said, all travel through Bhutan must be done through a tour group so if you’re interested in travelling there then Intrepid will do all it can to make that dream a reality
  During winter, if travelling to high altitude areas, you’ll need cold-weather gear, thermals, good waterproof boots and a warm/windproof jacket. If you’re not taking on an alpine trek, however, warm clothes are necessary for the evening but a fleece and windbreaker should suffice during the day.
  In the summertime, lightweight clothing is best along with a raincoat, as well as a jumper for the evening. You may add warmer clothes if heading into the higher reaches of the Himalaya, including a beanie, gloves, scarf and down jacket.
  In Bhutan, we stay in locally run accommodation including guesthouses, smaller-scale hotels and homestays in an effort to support the local economies. We also visit locally run restaurants and markets where travellers will have opportunities to support local businesses and purchase handicrafts created by local artisans.
  
  But even in this age of toxic politics, where braying jackasses get paid to wear their Sunday clothes and bloviate about the nation’s ills 24/7/365, there has to be some lines that we as human beings refuse to cross, there has to be some …shame.
  Following the first Democratic debate, the team at Fox and Friends took to the air to decry all the “freebies” being promised by the candidates. (This is the abridged political dichotomy of the Fox worldview, you see: Billionaires work hard for their money, while the people who work for billionaires, making them rich, are slackers.) A sneering Brian Kilmeade read from a checklist of all the handouts and comps Hillary, Bernie, and Co. promised Big Daddy Government would provide: “Childhood education, higher minimum wage, public college, public family leave, health care, health care for children, and in-state tuition for illegals, which they were cheering for!”
  Oh, those greedy little crumb-snatchers. Who do they think they are, vacuuming up American tax dollars? Not as if Timmy worked for his vaccinations. You don’t want polio? Get a job, ya mooch!
  What in the Ron-Swanson-wet-dream-hell are we even doing here? Children are tiny, vulnerable people whose chief distinction as members of your household, let alone your society, is that they don’t work for a living. A kid’s job is to learn, grow, and develop into a hopefully well-rounded, functioning human being, not worry about how medical bills are getting covered.
  Thankfully, for all the political polarization in this country, only 8 percent of kids in the United States are uninsured. I’d argue that number is still too high; there is no reason every rugrat in the richest country in the whole of human civilization shouldn’t be covered. And kids and their families damn sure shouldn’t become pariahs just because a poor, uninsured child needs to go see a doctor.
  Some of you may counter with “Well, obviously its poor kids’ parents not the kids themselves who are the problem, right?”
  Not really. More than 16 million children in the United States, a bit more than 20 percent, live in poverty. A lot of those children have parents who do in fact work full-time, hence the term “working” poor (about 10.6 million families under the poverty line have at least one adult working 40-plus hours a week). Are there some parents that take advantage of the system? Sure. Adults can be pretty terrible people. Some adults don’t work as hard as they could to support their families. Some adults also collapse the world’s economy for short-term profit. Some adults convince their fellow adults to go fight wars for an entire fucking generation. Never really know what a grown-up is gonna do.