Scottish Labour leader wants to make a difference for LGBT young people
PinkNews exclusive
Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, has revealed that she wants to use her position in politics to make a difference for LGBT young people.
Speaking exclusively to PinkNews, Ms Dugdale, who is the candidate for Edinburgh Eastern, said she wanted to “make a difference” for young LGBT people.
Having previously avoided talking about her personal life, the Scottish Labour leader revealed earlier this month she had a female partner and said she was “quite clearly gay” and that her choice of language was a natural, not political one.
She said: “I just said it in the most natural way to me. I wasn’t trying to make a political point one way or another. I did it in quite a casual sense.
“I believe fundamentally in equality and because of that I don’t think who my partner is matters.
“That’s why I chose to use language like ‘I have a female partner’, it was nothing to do with labels.
“It has everything to do with how I would describe my life and my partner, and how I choose to talk about that.
“I’m quite clearly gay, it’s just the use of language that we’re talking about here and I just did it in a very natural way, in the way I would say to a complete stranger meeting for the first time or a friend or someone at work.
“It’s just how I live my life and I expect people to accept that.”
In the interview, Ms Dugdale added that she was in favour of having discussions on PrEP within the first 100 days of the new parliament and that she would support a campaign to introduce gender neutral documents.
She also said that she had supported equal marriage since 2005 and that she wanted to reestablish a cross-party group on sexual health.
The full interview with Kezia is available here
