Forbidden Lives

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.