The countdown to LGBTQymru, Wales first ever, free, fully-bilingual digital queer quarterly magazine starts here.
Set to launch online on Friday February 26 2021, the edition will be packed with stories of our community by our community.
And in the spirit of true solidarity will cover all those topics that mean the most – Lifestyle, Community, Health and Well-Being, plus Culture.
The publication is the next chapter in the stunning success story of LGBTQymru, the collective of LGBTQ+ activists and allies who staged our nation’s first ever Wales Wide Virtual Pride in July 2020.
Wales Wide Virtual Pride celebrated the whole of our community across the whole of our country and brought together all those living the LGBTQ+ life, and their allies too.
Even in those early days of organising the unique online event, LGBTQymru had already begun planning what their future would look like.
They wanted to continue to create a free, online space to celebrate, support, and connect the ‘LGBTQommunities of Wales,’ and they wanted to continue to be ‘for the Qommunities, by the Qommunities’.
|And so LGBTQYMRU: The Magazine was born.
The publication will support, celebrate, and connect the LGBTQ+ communities of Wales becoming a platform for the faces, stories, and experiences of our beautifully rich and diverse community.
It will inspire us to learn more about who we are, and what we can continue to be, whilst recognising that, although we might have a shared understanding of what it is like to be queer, our experiences are unique and the result of how we have had to interact with the world.
And as LGBTQymru is a fully inclusive magazine for all our communities, the collective also stress the importance producing a fully bilingual edition.
Editor Bleddyn Harris said: “With Welsh and English being the two official languages of Wales, we wanted to make sure Welsh speaking LGBTQ+ people can engage and read the content in their language of choice.
“Also, it’s important to us that we play our part in terms of language inclusion and encouraging the growth, exposure, and usage of Welsh as an everyday language in our beautiful and bilingual country.”
So, as we move through LGBT History Month, LGBTQymru is set to for a place in the record books of its own.
Monday February 1st saw their social media campaign step up with the launch date announcement and there is a sneak preview of the magazine’s front cover on February 17th 2021.
The full edition is available on their website, LGBTQymru.Wales, from February 26th 2021. Readers can also subscribe to the magazine through the website to ensure a copy is delivered direct to their digital mailbox on launch day.
For the team behind the magazine, it’s crucial for our LGBTQ+ communities to have a safe, online space to tell their tales.
Deputy Editor Craig Stephenson OBE said: “More often than not, LGBTQ+ topics are brought up in the news as a result of something negative, and, whilst it is important we continue to hold those to account who would infringe upon our human rights, it’s equally important to celebrate and validate the lives of LGBTQ+ people.
This magazine will provide us a space to see ourselves in others at a time where we’ve maybe never felt further away from who we are and those we’ve come to know as our family and role models.”
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EDITORS NOTES:
- LGBTQymru, are an inclusive, voluntary, not-for profit collective, working with the queer community for the queer community.
- LGBTQymru organised the first ever Wales Wide Virtual Pride in July 2020.
- LGBTQymru Magazine is available online at LGBTQymru.Wales from Friday February 26th 2021.
- Editor Bleddyn Harris, and Community Editor Andrew White (Welsh Speaker), are available for quotes and interviews on request.
- LGBTQymru Magazine covers the whole of Wales from Cardiff to Ceredigion, Swansea to Snowdonia – and everything in between.
- Community Editors and/or Reporters from North, Mid, South East, and South West Wales are also available for quotes and interviews on request.
- LGBTQymru can be followed at INSTAGRAM| FACEBOOK | TWITTER.
- LGBTQymru can be contactedPress direct at hello@lgbtqymru.wales.
- The for Press Notice for the launch of LGBTQYMRU’s Magazine can be found here.
- The front cover and contents page can be found here.
Sue Vincent-Jones, writing as Mrs SVJ, is a Barry born journalist, editor, and communications specialist. She blogs about Barry – and her life in the wider world, through the eyes of a, quirky and queer, local girl done good.
As a founding member of LGBTYQymru, Sue promotes the work of the collective who support, celebrate, and connect our community in Wales. She is also Associate Editor of their magazine – Wales’ first ever queer quarterly online bilingual publication.
Mrs SVJ, Barry’s Boldest Blogger, can be contacted here.