I have made some Welsh LGBTQ+ Prints!

P'nawn da! Today is the day I'm finally launching my Welsh LGBTQ+ prints for sale (find them here). Like with my dissertation, they're pay as you feel (min. £2 plus postage) and I can post them to the UK, US, EU and Canada! Designs include the 2017 Gilbert Baker flag with the stripe meanings in Welsh and English, the map of Wales featuring my pride redesigns of the historic county flags of Wales, lesbian redesign of the Cardiff flag and a brand new design featuring 12 pride flags with the names of each in Welsh and English. I have 5 of each print in stock!

If you're new here or didn't know, unfortunately I experienced several major life changes this year which have really affected my finances (hospitalisation, long term relationship ended, emergency house move, job loss due to employer discrimination and a family member diagnosed with a terminal illness. For more details see this post). In order to help support myself I'm offering these prints for sale while I search for a new part time job. At the time of writing, I only have enough money in savings to cover 2 more months of rent and bills (not including food), so anything you can spare will help me afford food and keep doing what I love. I also have a patreon if you want to support me there.

I have also got my 47-page undergraduate dissertation on the development of Welsh-language terminology between 1972 and 2022 available here as pay as you feel (even £1!). Any support is hugely, hugely appreciated.

Certainly! I'm more than happy to oblige.

First though I'm gonna need to tldr: the history of Y Ddraig Goch before we get onto the (accidentally) canonically trans part.

A brief history of Y Ddraig Goch:

(The modern Welsh flag)

Y Ddraig Goch first appears in the tales of the Mabinogi (Charlotte Guest version) in the tale of Lludd and Llefelys where it is fighting a white dragon. The fight is also described/expanded upon in the c. 829 AD text Historia Brittonum (attributed to Nennius) - where the red dragon represents Wales and the white dragon represents the Anglo-Saxons. In the story the red dragon triumphs over the white. Of course, Geoffrey of Monmouth also covers the story c. 1136 in Historia Regnum Brittaniae in which he introduces the concept of the red dragon heralding the arrival of King Arthur.

Geoffrey of Monmouth claims Arthur used a banner featuring a golden dragon. But we also know the accuracy of Monmouth can be questionable at times. Owain Glyndŵr did use a banner with a golden dragon called Y Ddraig Aur - raised in 1401 at Caernarfon - Glyndŵr chose this banner as a nod to the supposed banner of Arthur and his father.

Later on the Tudor monarchs (being a Welsh family) adopted a red dragon on a white and green background in their heraldry. Eventually Y Ddraig Goch on a white and green background became the official badge of Wales in 1800. The design became the official flag of Wales in 1959.

Y Ddraig Traws:

Now for the thing you're all here for -

So, as outlined, the history of the dragon as a national symbol of Wales goes back a long way. If we're just talking post-1959, there's some interesting implications for Y Ddraig Goch's depiction.

This is what the Welsh flag (and Y Ddraig Goch) looked like in 1959 when it was officially adopted as the flag of Wales. It looks broadly the same as the first flag and has some common features - such as not having a penis (or, as in the correct heraldic terminology - a pizzle). Meanwhile, in the arms of the Tudors (specifically Henry VII)

(Tudor dragon with pizzle) vs (dragon on the flag of Cardiff - pizzleless)

the penis is almost always included. So much to the point that the present royal family still includes the penis. While pretty much 0 depictions of the dragon in Wales include a penis. So you could interpret this as the dragon is seen as male only by the British royal family and as female everywhere else (which kinda implies that at some point the Tudor dragon had an mtf transition in Wales and she keeps getting misgendered by the royal family every time she is depicted in (mostly) England).

So much to the point that in 1995 this pound coin was made by the Royal Mint featuring the pizzle on the dragon with all four feet touching the ground as opposed to standing up (passant rather than rampant).

But in Wales you'd be hard pressed to see a pizzled dragon anywhere. Ergo, we can only conclude Y Ddraig Goch is trans and she transitioned in Wales and keeps getting misgendered in England.

[note: This is mostly tongue in cheek - but I do think it's fun to extrapolate that the Welsh dragon is trans because of the differences in depiction between Wales and England. Like many things Welsh, it is misrepresented by England and the idea of the Welsh dragon being misgendered only in England is, I think, a good metaphor for a whole lot of English treatment of Wales.]

Unrelatedly, there is a gay Welsh flag held at the National Museum of Wales which has a very wonky dragon which I find very endearing.

(cleaned up version I made)

So much so I made it an emoji in my Welsh bilingual LGBTQIA+ Discord (requirements for joining are - be 16+, either speak or are learning Welsh and identify as LGBTQIA+ in some way. Dm for link!).

(triaist ti 'you tried' emoji)

Some stickers I've seen out and about in Aberystwyth recently! Good to see some trans flags out in the wild. Seen a few near big Tescos as well but didn't grab a picture last time I saw them.

Posted off the rest of last week's print orders yesterday, with my first sale to Canada! I will be unable to post prints off between the 21st and 29th of October due to being away from my flat during that time, so if you need a print to arrive before then please order soon so I can post that off for you! You'll still be able to place an order when I am away, but I will only be able to post things off on the 30th at the earliest.

Bore da! Coming to you today with a little update

As explained in my September Update, I have been focusing on my mental health these past few months due to various life events I've been dealing with, namely;

In mid-March my long-term relationship came to an end and I had to make an emergency move into a new flat due to no longer being able to afford the rent. I was then in hospital due to ketoacidosis (a buildup of ketones in the body which causes the body to be too acidic, which can be life threatening). In April I lost my job due to whistleblowing health and safety concerns (and also experienced direct disability discrimination. I will be taking my former boss to tribunal over this). In July I briefly had a new job, however, due to poor mental health I could not carry on in the role. And in July I was informed that a family member has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Despite all these major life changes, I'm still determined to keep on doing what I love (my research) and sharing it with you all. These events have taken their toll, however, and I'm struggling to make ends meet without a job (I have enough in savings for three months of rent, excluding bills and food). I have applied to many jobs in and around Aberystwyth and I hope to hear from one soon.

August was exhausting, after the events of the past few months. But I'm finally feeling well enough to write and create again. I had struggled for months to format my undergraduate dissertation but as of last week I was finally able to finish making edits. I'm happy to announce that I have made it available on a pay-as-you feel basis (you can pay as little as £1!) to help support me in the interim. The link to get a copy is here:

Researchers are welcome to email me at [email protected] for a free copy.

In addition to this, I'm going to be launching some Welsh-language/Welsh themed LGBTQ+ prints! If you enjoyed my queer Welsh county pride flags, my Welsh Gilbert Baker flag design or my Cardiff pride flag mashups, I will be making these into physical prints (UK, EU and US shipping available) very soon, so do please keep an eye out for that!

Hwyl a diolch yn fawr am darllen,

I'm a binary trans man who occasionally has days where I have no gender and am agender. When I have gender, it is exclusively binary. When I don't have gender, it isn't binary or nonbinary, it's the lack of gender altogether.

Previously, I felt a kinship with and was drawn to the term bigender. But I did not identify with it for the reason above. Binary trans man + agender isn't two genders, it's one gender and a lack of gender. To me, my agender days are a complete lack of gender altogether, so to conceptualise agender as a gender is a bit odd to me. But I know many people do consider it to be a gender, but this is not how I see it for me.

It has dawned on me though that bigender doesn't have to be literally '2 genders' (the same way bisexuality isn't only attraction to '2 genders' either). But that bigender can also accommodate '2 states of gender' - i.e. I experience 2 states of gender where I experience binary manhood and also the lack of gender altogether. Not at the same time though.

The state of gender where I actually have gender is exclusively binary, so I don't identify with nonbinary. Bigender is usually thought of as under the nonbinary umbrella - but in my case it doesn't.

Helô pawb! I am here today with to announce that I've been working with Hanes LHDT+ Cymru to publish the second chapter of my undergraduate dissertation "What drove the development of Welsh-language LGBTQIA+ terminology 1972-2022” for free on their blog!

Find the chapter here: https://lgbtqcymru.swansea.ac.uk/2023/10/03/the-post-1957-shift-in-lgbtqia-language-in-wales/

Some of you may also remember that I have worked with Hanes LHDT+ Cymru before and written some blogs for them. You can find them here:

Term Anniversaries- Vital Landmarks for Welsh LGBTQIA+ History (April 2023)

A brief history of Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex and Other terminology in Welsh dictionaries (Nov 2022)

Rhagenwau Rhyfedd- The Wonderful World of Weird Welsh Pronouns (Sept 2022)

Queer Ancestry- A look into the familial lives of some of Wales’ Queer historical figures (July 2022)

Papurau Pinc | Pink Papers: 18th-21st Century Welsh language newspaper reporting on Queer folk (June 2022)