"The one thing that was obvious from the start which is obvious in all LGBTQ+ history is that it's compeletely male dominated." These are the reflections of Norena Shopland, a leading historian who wrote Forbidden Lives, a book which aims to fill the many gaps in Wales' LGBTQ+ history.
When she set out to write her book, Norena wanted to make sure that Welsh women featured in her collection of important people in our history. But there was one catch. It's a lot harder to write about LGBTQ+ women from the past as there is little public record of them.
"A lot of what we know about gay men's history is taken from the criminal record, but with women they just got on with life," explained Norena. "Homosexuality was not criminalised for women in the same way it was for men. Women lived together and one would pretend to be the housemaid or that they were sisters or something. Historically, we are very short of women's histories." You can get more news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
In fact, women's histories in general are largely underrepresented. Wikipedia's Women in Red Project has highlighted the stark imbalance of biographies on the online platform. In February, 2023, of 1,929,848 biographies on Wikipedia, only 375,835 were about women- just 19.48%.
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Carrying out her own research on Welsh biographies on Wikipedia, Norena found the gender imbalance to be even worse. Despite the Women in Red project working to add more biographies for women to the platform, Norena said it would take "a whole other generation until we reach equity with men and when you add in diversities like ethnicity, disability, sexuality, it becomes even worse."
On trying to find women who we may now consider to be lesbian or bisexual in Welsh history, Norena said it could be very difficult. There was an attempt in 1921 to criminalise homosexuality for women, but it never happened.
In the early 20th Century, there were a lot of trials, such as the Oscar Wilde case, involving gay men, explained Norena. "They thought we should make it illegal for women as well. But they realised the moment they started talking about it, it would become public knowledge and they didn't want you to try this at home!"
With such hidden histories and a lack of public records, as a historian Norena has learned to read between the lines. Terms like "close companion" and "romantic friendships" or someone leaving their entire estate to a "friend" are common tell-tale signs that someone from the past might be considered today as part of the LGBTQ+ community.
But Norena said she was careful with the terminology she used and balanced the mapping of our LGBTQ+ history with trying not to label people with terms that did not apply to them. "The problem with terminology is that when we say lesbian today, we think of the whole person," explained Norena.
"We think of someone who lives their life as a lesbian. In the past, you were seen as someone who was addicted to a certain act. That was the prevailing attitude of the past, so people would not understand these terms and many believed they were addicted to these acts. So, we can't inflict terminology on a lot of them."
One woman Norena has researched and featured in Forbidden Lives is Cranogwen. Born in Llangranog in 1839, Cranogwen was a sailor, teacher, poet, writer, editor and lay preacher. In her book, Norena describes her as having done "an enormous amount for the advancement of Welsh women writers, but today is little known."
Cranogwen is soon to be immortalised with a statue in the centre of Llangranog, which is scheduled to be unveiled in June this year. This is the third statue commissioned by Monumental Welsh Women to celebrate the achievements of Wales' hidden heroines and has been created by sculptor Sebastien Boyesen with the help of Kezia Furguson.
Cranogwen
Sarah Jane Rees is best-known by her Bardic name- a pseudonym used in Wales by poets and other artists - Cranogwen and has been described as "the most outstanding Welsh woman of the nineteenth century" by historian Professor Deirdre Beddo.
Becoming an overnight celebrity thanks to the success of her poetry, Cranogwen became the first ever woman to win a poetry prize at the National Eisteddfod in 1865 with her poem 'Y Fodrwy Briodasal' (The Wedding Ring). In 1878, she became an editor of a monthly Welsh language women's journal, Y Frythones (the Women's Journal) which was devoted to women's issues. Cranogwen also toured America lecturing on women's issues and temperance.
After leaving the journal, she co-founded the South Wales Women's Temperance Union, aged 60, and preached in branches across Wales. In a biography on the influential writer and preacher, Rev D.J. Jones wrote: "When they saw Cranogwen in the pulpit addressing a crowd of men they thought the end of the world had come. They thought it excellent to suggest she was a man in female form, or woman in masculine form, and we heard some suggest she belonged to neither one sex nor the other."
Cranogwen was unmarried and lived with her parents next door to a woman named Jane Thomas. When her parents died, Cranogwen sold the house and moved in with Jane and they lived together for 25 years until Cranogwen died in 1916. It is believed she was previously in a relationship with Fanny, a female writer from Troedyraur, who died in Cranogwen's arms after contracting tuberculosis.
Cranogwen is just one of many important figures in LGBTQ+ Welsh history that Norena has worked tirelessly to ensure is remembered. Norena has also recently helped launch the LGBTQ+ timelines of Wales project, which aims for every county in Wales to have its own timeline focussing on local LGBTQ+ people rather than celebrities. Norena said she hoped the project would help diversify the histories we tell.
"As soon as you say 'history', you think it's boring but history is today. It's what we are doing today," she said.
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