Introduction

The introduction outlines how the writing of my book Forbidden Lives: LGBT Stories from Wales, the first completely historical book on Welsh sexual orientation and gender identity, inspired me to search the historical record for unpublished, hidden and forbidden people. In particular, I was determined to uncover more about those in the past who we would now consider lesbian, trans or intersex. I recovered over 3,000 articles – the majority of which remain unpublished outside their original sources. The methodology devised as a result of my search was published in Queering Glamorgan, the most comprehensive guide on recovering information about LGBTQIA+ people in the past. The revolutionary part of this methodology was that it did not rely on set glossaries but, rather, used a ‘pick-and-mix’ type of phrasing to cater for the lack of terminology in the past. This book builds on the work started in that guide, and the introduction outlines the contents of its chapters.