Forbidden Lives: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Stories from Wales - Softcover

Norena Shopland

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1781724105 ISBN 13: 9781781724101

Publisher: Seren, 2017

Synopsis

Forbidden Lives is a fascinating collection of portraits and discussions that charts the changing LGBT history of Wales, a neglected part of Welsh history in great need of positive revision. Activist and researcher Norena Shopland looks at the reasons for this neglect and guides the reader through the activity behind the recent growth of the LGBT profile in Wales. She also surveys LGBT people and their activity as far back as the twelfth century, when Giraldus Cambrensis reports on 'bearded women' and other hermaphrodites in his Journey Through Wales. Her subjects include Edward II and Hugh DeSpenser, seventeenth century poet Katherine Philips, the Ladies of Llangollen, Henry Paget, artists Gwen John and Cedric Morris, and actor Cliff Gordon.

In addition, Shopland identifies strong Welsh connections to twentieth century scientific and legal attitudes towards homosexuality and transgender, especially the contributions of John Randell, MPs Desmond Donnelly and Leo Abse, historian AE Dyson and activist Griff Williams. They transformed social and legal attitudes towards LGBT people across the whole of Britain, particularly during the post-war period, which helped to create the more today's more liberal culture. Chapters on the responses to Pride in Wales and We All Fall Down, the first gay play, show there is still more to achieve. But the stories of the people portrayed in the book are less likely to be repeated: the LGBT community has moved from living forbidden lives to a less forbidding place. Norena Shopland's book helps us comprehend the struggle for these changes.

About this title

Review:

"Norena Shopland has brought together for the first time a collection of these stories. They are gripping in their own right, but they also provide the necessary outline of what a full history of LGBT life in Wales will be." --Jeffrey Weeks, Professor of Sociology, London South Bank University

About the Author:

Norena Shopland has a Master's degree in heritage studies and has worked for the British Museum, National Museums Scotland and the Museum of London. Now living back in Wales she has worked with leading heritage organisations including National Museums Wales, Glamorgan Archives and Cardiff Story.

Shopland has extensively researched the heritage of LGBT people and issues in Wales for 15 years. She devised the first project in Wales to look at placing sexual orientation and gender identity into Welsh history, and managed Gender Fluidity, the first funded transgender project in Wales. She has been the main organiser of LGBT History Month Cymru for three years and arranged for Gillian Clarke to write the first poem in the world by a national or poet laureate celebrating the LGBT people of a country. Her work has appeared in the Welsh press, radio and TV and she regularly provides advice and support in the history of LGBT people in Wales. She lectures to staff networks of the Welsh Government, to numerous museums, archives, charities and other events such as BiFest, Sparkle and Pride.

About this edition

• Publisher: Seren
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1781724105
• ISBN 13: 9781781724101
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248