#cwiar

[b1odeuwed]

my (lesbian) knight in shining armour

[llyfrenfys]

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT Y DDRAIG TRAWS!

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)

~ Completely unrelatedly ~ never forget the time someone was trying to homophobic to me by suggesting that I was disrespecting all the soldiers who died 'for the Welsh flag' by making it rainbow colours and not red - arguing that any change of colour of the dragon was disrespectful. Reader, my bus pass at the time for Mid Wales Travel had a purple dragon on it.

[llyfrenfys]

New stock is finally here and I'm expanding international shipping!

I have 2 new print designs out today, based on my artworks for the Tir Cwiar exhibition! One is based on "Yr Haul" - a piece which celebrates the queerness of the land through the interblending of the mountains of Wales with the chevron on the progress pride flag. And the other is based on sketches I did for "Y Daith" - featuring the earliest reference to intersex people in Welsh as the ring on the intersex flag (the reference comes from the Laws of Hywel Dda and dates to around the 14th Century).

I have also restocked some of my most popular prints, such as the bilingual Gilbert Baker flag print (pictured) and the bilingual LGBT+ terminology print. You can find my prints here.

I am also expanding international shipping! I can now ship to any places covered by Royal Mail - including the US, Canada, EU, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Australia and elsewhere in the world. International shipping prices have gone up so you will be charged a flat rate of £2.70 for shipping if you are located outside of the UK. Existing international orders will also be posted tomorrow (all things going well).

For those of you in the UK - I will be selling badges soon as well. If you've bought from me in-person you will have had a sneak-peek at some of them already, but soon I will have pronoun badges, collage badges and original art badges up for sale on my online shop. Shipping of badges will be UK only due to costs for now.

I'm still completely reliant on proceeds from my online shop in order to pay bills, pay rent and buy food - so I am hugely appreciative of every order. Diolch o galon i chi!

[llyfrenfys]

So about the dictionary-

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I'm gonna start off with a personal anecdote, because I'm incapable of keeping this blog to solely one topic. But it's relevant and directs a lot of what I do. This has been in my drafts for a bit, so yesterday here actually refers to Tuesday.

Yesterday, I wore one of my favourite shirts. It's black with hawaiian shirt-style flowers all over it. If you remember when I was on the Pinc List in 2022, it's the same shirt I'm wearing in my picture. Unlike most of my shirts, it doesn't cover my butt and the shirt itself is meant to be quite snug. Anyway, yesterday I had an appointment in Aberystwyth at 10:30 and I live in a village nearby - which is very close by car, but I don't drive, so it's about 25-30 minutes on foot, depending on how fast you're walking.

Now, I'm a trans man. I'm on T. Sometimes I pass, but other times I don't. I've known that I am trans since I was 14 and had plenty of egg-cracking moments before then besides. I've been on T since June 2023. It is now May 2025.

As I'm running part of the way to town to make up for lost time (didn't want to be late) a man perched on top of a large lawnmower catcalled me about my butt as I ran past.

*Pang*. The sudden realisation of what happened hit me at once. I had been misgendered and sexually harassed in the same instance. This is not the first time this has happened to me. But it still hurts every time it happens. It would be unacceptable if it happened to s cis woman - and its still unacceptable when it happens to a trans man who is mistaken for a cis woman.

I kept running and made it to my appointment on-time.

The point of that anecdote was to demonstrate with a real-life example I experienced in 2025 of being a trans man facing sexual harassment and misogyny. You do not have to be a woman to experience misogyny, in fact, misogyny is often aimed at cis men in order to emasculate them by other cis men. E.g. "That's so girly", "You run like a girl". But I digress - the main point of me sharing my own experience like this is to demonstrate that trans men cannot reliably pass more than any other trans person and that trans men still face misogyny after coming out or starting medical transition.

If this seems relatively uncontroversial to you so far - that's brilliant. Hold onto that - because you're bang on the money there. There are, however, many people who disbelieve trans men when we come forward to talk about our experiences. Even trans men who have faced much more severe examples of sexual harassment and misogyny than I have, who have bravely come forward to talk about what they've experienced.

The term transmisogyny is broadly used to describe the transphobia principally directed at trans women. The term exorsexism is (one of a few terms) broadly used to describe the transphobia principally directed at nonbinary people. And the term transandrophobia is (one of many) terms broadly used to describe the transphobia principally directed at trans men (of which my experience falls under).

However, the final concept is not accepted by some people, who for some reason believe trans men shouldn't have a word or any terminology to describe our experiences. They are unfortunately ignorant to the experiences of trans men like me and attack their own queer siblings for wanting to describe their own experiences.

How does this relate to the dictionary?

As you know, it is my long term goal and plan to create a Welsh-English dictionary of LGBTQ+ terminology. I plan to leave no stone unturned and have hundreds of historical terms in my research already, which will make their way into the pages of the dictionary. But there is also room for neologisms. That includes relatively recent terms in English like transmisogyny, exorsexism and of course, transandrophobia. All of which will be translated into Welsh for the dictionary as suggestions for what Welsh equivalents of these terms could be like, but are by no means prescriptions.

Interestingly enough, Welsh has a historical precedent of borrowing English terminology for LGBTQ+ subjects that are themselves relatively recent terms in English. This happened in the 1500s and in subsequent centuries. In one instance, a term had hardly existed in English for 20 years before it was used in the translation of the Welsh Bible, of all places. My point being - this has happened before.

I sometimes get the sense that people expect smaller and more marginalised languages to lag behind larger languages such as English, French and Spanish when it comes to developing or borrowing LGBTQ+ terminology. But this is a narrative which makes marginalised languages seem "backwards" and adds to the negative perception of such languages - which is critical to challenge and undo for the survival of marginalised languages such as Welsh. Contrary to expectations, some marginalised languages do "keep up" as it were in some areas. Therefore, when it comes to the dictionary, Welsh shall have no lag behind English and will be as equal and full.

Therefore, Welsh will include terminology that is relatively new and recent, such as transmisogyny, exorsexism and transandrophobia, from the get-go.

I'm currently on a hiatus with regards to working on the dictionary. But when I am no longer on a hiatus (after I've dealt with some rather pressing things in my life) this is what you can expect to see in the dictionary.

[llyfrenfys]

Happy international lesbian day ! The word for lesbian in Welsh is 'lesbiaidd'

[llyfrenfys]

If I had a nickel for every time someone was convinced on instagram/fb my gay Welsh art was the antichrist's doing I'd have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it's happened twice

In other news, this literally made me laugh out loud. Ah yes, sorry all Welsh flags are gay now, I don't make the rules.

[llyfrenfys]

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.

I have re-ordered my most popular prints - the bilingual Welsh/English Gilbert Baker print and the bilingual Welsh/English LGBT+ flag and terminology print. They should be available this Friday if you want to grab one! I also have misprints available at a discount as well. You can grab any of these prints in the link in my bio.

[llyfrenfys]

Okay - real talk : Update and how I've been

So I've felt very overwhelmed these past few months - mainly due to being preoccupied with keeping a roof over my head, putting food on the table and bills paid. I'm still very much preoccupied with all of these things. But slowly, good things are happening amongst the bad and I want to focus on those things.

Firstly, in early February three of my queer art pieces (pictured) were unveiled along with the works of 9 other artists in the Tir Cwiar exhibition in Elysium Gallery in Swansea, in collaboration with On Your Face Collective. It's something I'm immensely proud of and happy about - so many people came to the opening of the exhibition on the 7th and I met so many wonderful people on the night.

Secondly, I have been buoyed by connecting with other queer people in Ceredigion - especially at events like Friday's Aberration Cymru event and I've been buoyed by the support of my friends here in Aberystwyth. You know who you are reading this!

I've been through a lot - so much. So much I can't even begin to describe or explain. I've had losses, I've jumped through hoop after hoop. But I keep going. There's been setbacks aplenty - but I have no intention of putting down pen or paintbrush any time soon.

So, with that in mind - since November I officially became self-employed and declared myself as such to HMRC. Right now, Llyfr Enfys is my sole source of income. Which means, I'll be ramping up selling my prints, poetry and dissertation to help support myself as well as taking on freelance work where I am able.

I've been overwhelmed with the love and warmth of the response to my last post and can confirm as of today I have paid the last looming bill (for now). Thank you so, so much to everyone who has helped support me monetarily - I will be buying more stamps ASAP and then sending everything off to you all 💜

But from here on in - expect a lot more from Llyfr Enfys - solidarity forever and much love 💗