In case anyone didn't 100% follow what was happening - currently same sex marriage, adoption, and in-vitro fertilization are all banned in Japan. However, Japan's birth rate is very low. LGBT rights activists correctly point out that lifting these bans would be a trivial way to help boost that birth rate, since it would allow for gay families. Conservatives tend to argue the opposite, i.e. that lifting these bans would "normalize homosexuality" and cause the rate to drop further. This is complete nonsense of course, but it leads to cable news shows "teaching the controversy," usually by having an LGBT activist and a conservative yell past each other for 10 minutes. If you're gay, it is very painful to watch these "discussions," since it makes clear society views your basic rights as negotiable. Our protagonist's girlfriend was right to shut the TV off, since watching that sort of thing doesn't solve anything and just makes you feel like shit.