Sadly this is entirely unsurprising and a clear focus of the republican platform. Trans rights are going first, because they are the easiest to deal with, but with it will go out the edges of other gay rights and gay rights eventually. It would not surprise me to see bills mimicking the various abortion laws going into affect having a similar reach but on queer issues instead - the ability to sue individuals who do what they don’t want happening. With a supermajority of conservatives on the supreme court and the absolute unwillingness of the democrats to solve these issues, I only expect this to get much, much worse before it gets better. I’ve been talking with a lot of my more liberal friends who live in the midwest and urging them to start thinking about moving, because I see this as a slippery slope which is only just starting to kick in.
Counterpoint: The midwest needs strong people to stand up against these wrongs more now than ever. By leaving it turns those kinds of places into an echo chamber of conservatism, which will have to be dealt with at some point one way or another. It’s not a position I would want to be in, but it’s better to fight it now before it becomes further entrenched.