Queer Wales

Queer Wales provides varied perspectives on queer history, culture, politics and life in Wales, launching an important discussion and suggesting that perhaps Wales has always been a bit of a queer place to live.

The relationship between nation and queer sexuality has long been a fraught one, for the sustaining myths of the former are often at odds with the needs of the latter. This collection of essays introduces readers to important historical and cultural figures and moments in queer life, and it addresses some of the urgent questions of queer belonging that face Wales today.

I. The Queer Past Before 1900Queer Loss: Felicia Hemans, (trans)nationalism, and the Welsh BardDaniel Hannah‘Gender difference is nothing’: Cranogwen and Victorian WalesJane Aaron‘Please don’t whip me this time’: The Passions of George Powell of Nant-EosHarry HeuserFrom Huw Arwystli to Siôn Eirian: Representitive Examples of Cadi/Queer Life from Medieval to Twentieth Century Welsh LiteratureMihangel MorganII. Placing Queer Wales after 1900‘A queer kind of fancy’: women, same-sex desire, and nation in Welsh literatureKirsti Bohata‘Not friends / But fellows in a union that ends’: Associations of Welshness and Non-heteronormativity in Edward ThomasAndrew WebbFairy Tale Drag and the Transgender Nation in Rhys Davies, Erica Wooff, and Jan Morris.Huw OsborneIII. Building Queer Wales Post-DevolutionLesbian Motherhood in the South Wales Valleys: A Narrative ExplorationAlys EinionLiving in Fear: Homophobic Hate Crime in WalesMatthew Williams and Jasmin TregidgaHeb addysg, heb ddawn (Without education, without gift): LGBTQ Youth in Educational Settings in WalesJohn Sam JonesIV. Performing Contemporary Queer WalesOmnisexuality and the City: Exploring National and Sexual Identity through BBC Wales’ TorchwoodRebecca Williams and Ruth McElroyQueer/Welsh and Welsh/Queer: Performing Hybrid WalesStephen Greer