"You have to respect trans rights": Ed Davey and Layla Moran stress Lib Dem stance

2 August 2020, 12:55

Sir Ed Davey and Layla Moran on Lib Dem position on trans rights

Layla Moran and Sir Ed Davey stressed the Liberal Democrats position supporting trans people and trans rights.

Victoria phoned in from Inverness during Iain Dale's Lib Dem leadership debate and asked Sir Ed Davey and Layla Moran to define a woman, which was in reference to the Liberal Democrats policy of trans rights.

"A woman is defined by the individual," Sir Ed began.

"If a person believes they are a woman, a trans woman is a woman, that's my view, it's the party's view and it's the view of many other people."

The current leader of the Liberal Democrats stressed that the party believes in equality "and when you have that as a core of your philosophy then you have to respect trans rights."

Mr Moran added that "the liberal approach to this is that every individual has the right to decide who they are, it's not up to society to do that, it's for the individual to do that."

The pair were in agreement on the party's position on trans rights and Sir Ed noted the Lib Dems have been at the forefront of equality legislation. "We had this same argument when Liberal Democrats were pushing through and arguing for same sex marriage legislation," he reminded Iain.

Iain put the response of Sir Ed and Ms Moran back to the caller, who believed the act of self-identification is questionable. "You can wake up and say 'I now feel this way'" the caller argued and clearly didn't agree with it.

Ms Moran questioned Victoria's thinking, telling her that she "underplayed what is often a very painful personal process for someone in that position."

She went on to say that the Lib Dems are always "at the forefront of progressive change" and trans rights are no exception.

Sir Ed concluded that "giving trans women and trans men rights and protecting them doesn't undermine the rights of others."