(For Welsh see below) Amgueddfa Cymru has been collaborating with Welsh LGBTQ+ Historian Norena Shopland to run a Creative writing project that focuses on creatively responding to pieces of Wales’ often hidden or forgotten LGBTQ+ history. We are inviting people to submit prose, poems, or artwork inspired by the four historic texts in this pack … Read More “Proud Writing Call Out:” »
Author: Norena Shopland
Luke Blaidd Recently, I posted this image (below) on my Prosiect Llyfr Enfys social media accounts: This is an infographic which I made on a whim after noticing that Jac L. Williams’ Geiriadur Termau turned 50 years old this year. I came to realise that by extension, so had the terms ‘lesbiad’ and ‘deuryw’, which … Read More “Term Anniversaries- Vital Landmarks for Welsh LGBTQIA+ History” »
Norena Shopland I came across this old newspaper recently, it is a 1976, 100-year celebration edition of the Glamorgan Gazette. Interesting what you can find when leafing through, such as a bit of cross-dressing from an ‘Old family album’ – Note the intimate touching in both photos –
Norena Shopland Sometimes, when recording a history of diversity, diversity within diversity often gets left out. We struggle at the best of times to find cases of sexual orientation and gender identity but finding minority ethnic or disability, for example, within that history is ten times harder. Consequently, we are often left with a history … Read More “Mystery Gauze, the female impersonator” »
I’m Mark and I’m the Curator of LGBTQ+ History at St Fagans National Museum of History. St Fagans is in Cardiff, and is part of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales’ family of seven museums across Wales. St Fagans tells the story of Wales from 230,000 years ago to the present day through its three indoor … Read More “Developing an LGBTQ+ collection at St Fagans National Museum of History” »
Norena Shopland Postcards are always a good and relatively cheap way to build up any collection. While it is harder to find those representing sexual orientation and gender identity, it is possible to find some items, particularly of more well-known people, such as the Ladies of Llangollen around whom a whole merchandising business grew up … Read More “Read the back” »
Norena Shopland When considering a history of sexual orientation and gender identity in Wales we cannot always concentrate on items specifically related to the country and its people – for example, bestselling books would have been read throughout the UK. Bearing this in mind, I’ve taken a look at two books, one from the seventeenth … Read More “Queering Onania: some 17th and 18th-century sexual orientation and gender identity stories” »
by Luke Blaidd Following on from my first blog The Case of the 450 year-old Word: A Queer Welsh slur throughout the centuries (in which I dove into the history of the terminology used for gay men in Welsh), this blog is a short history of the lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex terminology used in … Read More “A brief history of Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and Other terminology in Welsh dictionaries” »
by Syd Morgan In December 1971, Plaid Cymru’s monthly newspaper, Welsh Nation, published a letter from Cardiff Gay Liberation Front. Its content was an attempt to fuse the demands of the GLF with those of the Party’s aims. It had been written by Stuart Neale, active in both organisations and this narrative chronicles his attempt … Read More “Stuart Neale” »
Luke Blaidd The Hanes LHDT+ Cymru blog normally focuses on LGBTQ+ Welsh history past, however, I would like to introduce the potential Welsh language history of the future: Gender neutral pronouns. The inclusion of gender neutral pronouns in everyday Welsh is hugely historic for the language and is already underway in pockets of Welsh speaking LGBTQ+ … Read More “Rhagwenau Rhyfedd- The Wonderful World of Weird Welsh Pronouns” »