MP Layla Moran reveals she chose to speak about pansexuality as journalists have been trying to out her
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran speaks at party conference (BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
British lawmaker Layla Moran has revealed why she decided to come out as pansexual amid reporters “sniffing around” her and her loved ones in an effort to out her.
The Liberal Democrat and potential party leader came out as pansexual to PinkNews yesterday, criticising parliament as a “weird, backwards place” for LGBT+ people.
Pansexuality means someone who is attracted to people regardless of sex and gender identity. The prefix ‘pan’ means ‘all’, rejecting the gender binary and the qualities it separates.
In an opinion piece for the i, the Oxford West and Abingdon Member of Parliament candidly discussed how some reporters had pressed her for information on her identity and love life using “unscrupulous” tactics in the run up to the election.
Pansexual politician Layla Moran alleges the press tried to out her.
“My revelation is also news because over the last couple of months journalists have been sniffing around this story,” she wrote.
“They’ve asked friends, made indirect approaches, and more recently, very direct approaches to people I know, asking for information about my personal life.
“I should say, this is absolutely not all journalists, but a select few who seem not to have got the memo that it’s 2020.
She continued: “At a time when good news reporting is under attack, in my view these unscrupulous journalists give the entire profession a bad name.
Layla Moran MP and her girlfriend Rosy Cobb, a former Lib Dem press officer
“In reality, the vast majority I’ve spoken to about this are equally outraged. The world has moved on.
She added: “It is no longer OK to threaten to out anyone in public life or otherwise. But the fact remains that not everyone believes this.
“So, that is why I felt that I had to speak up quite as publicly as I did. We need to challenge these views.
“We need to show these people, whether it be those who suggested I end or ‘manage’ my relationship, or those who wanted to write about it, that this is not OK.
“I very much hope that the next time anyone, politician or otherwise, goes on a similar very personal life journey to me that it might be just that little bit easier.”
‘I’m very proud and if anyone is going to do this story, it’s me.’
Moreover, in an interview with the Oxford Mail, Moran added that a single national “newspaper” targeted her private life “during the election”.
The publication contacted people Moran knew, she claimed, before noting she initially planned to go public with her relationship in the summer.
“We have got to the point [in the relationship] where we have met the family,” she said, “but we haven’t told my grandmother, I was going to wait until the summer – it’s a great, but relatively new relationship – why should I have to talk to her right now?
“I shouldn’t have to.
“I thought, ‘it’s a new year, I have had time to think it through’, and I felt ready. Sod that newspaper.
They can’t control me and how they are going to run this story. This is my story and I am going to take control of it.
“I’m very proud and if anyone is going to do this story, it’s me.”
