Layla Moran: Potential Lib Dem leadership candidate becomes first MP to come out as pansexual

The fact that she has chosen not to identify as lesbian makes her homophobic in my book and tells you just how desperately anti-lesbian and anti-feminist the woke element of the left are

This makes no sense at all. Why on earth would she "identify as a lesbian"? By the definition of "lesbian" which FWR regulars insist on she can't possibly be a lesbian.
She has had a relationship with a man in the past and clearly in her own words isn't excluding the possibility of doing so in the future.

I'm really not seeing why some of you are getting so wound up about this. "Pansexual" sounds a bit silly but does it mean anything more than "would not exclude straight, gay, (for sake of definition here) "cis" or trans individuals if I found them attractive"

I am not pansexual, bisexual or lesbian because I am only interested in having a sexual relationship with a partner who is a natal male and who looks and says he is a natal male. Does that make me lesbophobic/transphobic/ homophobic ? No, it doesn't. So I'm completely failing to see why LM saying she is pansexual is homophobic.

Not satisfied with attempting to wipe out the L bit of LGBT, it seems some people are after the B bit too.
Saw a journalist on BBC news just now waxing lyrical about all the different genders and then remarking on gay a bisexual MPs without realising (?) that gender and sex are not synonymous words. Disappointingly Carrie Gracie (is that her name?) didn't call the journo out on it.

Actually as a pp said, the more grown ups use these terms, the more kids will shy away from it with embarrassment. Like Facebook.

Pansexual seems to be all over twitter as Janelle Monae apparently talked about it to rolling stone. And now Layla. So it's well cool. Lots of questions about it though...

Bisexual is now, from what I can tell from a brief glance over twitter replies, being framed as attraction to "cis" people. And so 'lesser'. But it seems to be what ever you want it to be.

More erasure.

I can't make out the difference between these two definitions below.

Pansexual has unfortunate connotations for me, and for a lot of people.

You know where you are with good old bisexuality.

I wonder if they're going to get that "independent" investigation company (Veritas?) back in, for another whitewash they can sweep under the carpet.

Oh what a tangled web indeed.

I was just listening to Morans utterly ridiculous commons statement, the one about souls. The way she dragged women with polycystic ovary syndrome into the debate was a disgrace. I can't stress enough the pain that condition causes women.

Women having ANY medical condition does NOT make them men. In any way. Ever.

I hate this.

NotDavidTennant self ID was pretty prominent in their last GE campaign and right there in their manefesto. You surely couldn’t have missed the several car crash interviews the Lib Dem’s did on MSM trying to justify the unjustifiable?

The fact that she has chosen not to identify as lesbian makes her homophobic in my book and tells you just how desperately anti-lesbian and anti-feminist the woke element of the left are

But why would she identify as lesbian when she has had relationships with men?

There have been plenty of posts condemning people for identifying as lesbian whilst being willing to consider relationships with trans women, on the basis that if you have ever had sex with a male you’re not lesbian.

Here is a woman saying she’s pansexual, being condemned for not considering herself lesbian. If she’d said bisexual would that be ok?

I mean, it’s not erasing lesbians, or homophobic, to not call yourself a lesbian when you actually go for both sexes.

They don’t need to ‘pivot hard’; the are there already.

Amongst sections of the membership maybe, but they haven't made it central to their policy platform so far. Their manifesto at the last election was mostly about stopping Brexit and introducing various soft left and soft green economic policies.

By 'pivot hard' I mean they could move from self-ID being a policy to being a campaign issue.

A better ‘hook’ would be to position themselves left of centre in the space left by the Labour Party.

That will only work if Labour choose another left winger as leader. If Labour go for a moderate like Starmer, then the Lib Dems may be tempted to try something more radical to distinguish themselves.

Possibly a sign of the times but when I saw her talking on TV this morning with the sound down (I was getting dressed for work and didn't want to wake my missus) I saw the ticket tape saying she was declaring as pansexual and assumed from the look of her that she was a transwoman.

It’s shit* being bisexual when you have public figures insinuating you’re exclusionary by being capable of attraction to 100% of humanity.

*not as shit as being cotton-ceilinged/gay bashed, but there is a scale of shit and this isn’t nice. I think true biphobia (not homophobia directed at bisexuals) is rare - and pansexuality & the underlying anti-bi ideology is a good example of it.

A better ‘hook’ would be to position themselves left of centre in the space left by the Labour Party.

What do you mean take them in that direction? They’re the wokiest of woke already.

Possibly why they are down to 11 MPs

They don’t need to ‘pivot hard’; the are there already.

It would not surprise me at all if the Lib Dems decide to pivot hard into woke politics. They are down to 11 MPs and their core policy of 'stop Brexit' has failed, so they need a new political 'hook' if they want to avoid fading away altogether.

Moran may be positioning herself here to take the party in that direction.

Ah...damnwoman... I had to go back to boatyards original post...the snippet you wrote wasn't complete and the longer post makes your response much more understandable

And the story, given that no-one gives a toss about same-sex relationships, is what exactly is Moran trying to hide?

Did she and Swinson trade favours around the leadership and Cobbgate?

Swinson already showed piss poor judgement over the Rennard business.

I think in Layla's case most people aren't that bothered that she is in a relationship with a woman. Who the woman is is far more significant

Indeed. I can't recall seeing a single derogatory or negative article about Ruth Davidson's, Kezia Dugdale's, Angela Eagle's or Justine Greening's partners.

Let's leave aside the fact that the Daily Mail was about to 'expose' her for having a relationship with a woman and so she was compelled to come out

Was it? I don't really think the Mail or even the majority of its readers are remotely bothered about whether anyone in public life is gay or straight.

I can imagine a puff piece along the lines of "Layla Moran finds new love after traumatic bust up". It's not exactly real public interest but well within the bounds of tabloid "public interest" in a public figure.

It certainly isn't "exposing" unless you think any mention of the new love being the same sex is "exposing". If that is the case that choice of words by you is in itself introducing an element of homophobia.

thatdamnwomen just to be clear, the Daily Mail was about to 'expose' her for having a relationship with a woman who tried to present a fraudulent email as evidence of criminal action and was suspended from the party when this became apparent.

A uk politician in a relationship with a woman is hardly newsworthy; leaders of both the Scottish Labour Party and Scottish Conservative parties until recently were both Lesbians in relationships with women (still lesbians but stepped down as political party leaders)..

I know this is in the press now as they were running to get out in front of it, and thought they could present this in a way to give them an advantage, to appeal to their target vote of woke millennials (to use a stereotype, but you know...) but it seems to me this (hopefully!) will be a spectacular own goal.

Most importantly it draws attention to the dodgy activities of the people involved, and I agree this should be the main focus rather than focusing solely on the absurdity of their language and concepts.

Ironically, their target market (certainly based on my DCs and their friends, late teens/definitely targets for the LibDem vote/woke millennials) seem to be judging them negatively for the second reason. Binterested's post was timely as I funnily enough actually came here to post that I discussed this with my DC and when I asked what the difference between bisexual and pan sexual was she replied "one is attracted to both sexes, one is a 12 year old that shouldn't be on the internet". It would almost be funny if it wasn't so sad and frightening.

These are politically aware and active young people (old gimmer alert!) so hopefully when they are discussing this they will be aware of, and spread the details of the behaviour of people involved, rather than simply discussing the term pansexual etc.

The timeline of all this Lib Dem politicking is intriguing.

2017 the Lib Dems' CEO Tim Gordon steps down. He was known for keeping a right rein on Party spending. (I've met him btw.) (Just to name drop.)

By February 2018 the Lib Dems press office is reported to be in chaos. Too many new hires, good people gone, Ms Cobb put in charge despite having no experience. order-order.com/2018/02/23/leaving-libdem-press-office-exodus-causing-chaos/

By November 2018 the Lib Dems are in financial turmoil, with a quarter of their staff facing redundancy www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/liberal-democrats/vince-cable/news/99690/excl-lib-dem-bosses-called

May 2019 Layla Moran drops out of leadership race (which Swinson goes on to win) www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/layla-moran-set-to-withdraw-from-liberal-democrat-leadership-race-following-revelations-she-was-a4141586.html

At some point in 2019 Moran begins a relationship with Cobb
www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/layla-moran-lgbt-rosy-cobb-pink-news-1-6449026

Late Nov / early Dec 2019, Rosy Cobb is revealed to be the source of the faked email. The legal threats to openDemocracy, presumably designed to keep the whole thing quiet, were apparently signed off by a certain Joanne Swinson.
order-order.com/2019/12/03/libdem-head-press-rosy-cobb-suspended-party/

January 2020, with Swinson yesterday's news, Moran makes her leadership bid.

Apologies if I have got any of those dates wrong - please correct.

Argh. Cross-posted. Anyway, my point stands.