The Mayor of Bangor, Owen Hurcum, has announced they will not stand for re-election at the next council elections, to be held in May this year.
Owen, who identifies as genderqueer or agender, became the Mayor of Bangor last year, the first openly non-binary mayor of any city world-wide and the youngest person in history to hold a mayoral position in Wales.
Originally from the London suburb of Harrow, Owen moved to Bangor in 2015 to attend Bangor University.
Owen was due to run as a Plaid Cymru candidate in the 2021 Senedd election, being fourth on Plaid’s regional list for North Wales, which would have made them Plaid’s first ever openly non-binary candidate. However, on 3 March 2021, they withdrew from the election and resigned from the party, citing transphobia. They continued to sit on Bangor Council as an independent, until January 2022 when they announced they had joined the Breakthrough Party.
In a Twitter post this evening Owen Hurcum said: “With the election period beginning next week for Welsh Local Elections 2022 many people will be announcing their intention to run for election or re-election. I wish to take this opportunity to state that I, however, will not be seeking re-election to Bangor City Council.
“This is not a reflection on Bangor City Council, nor my time as a Councillor and it certainly isn’t to do with the harassment I have been subjected to (by small but vocal minority) on occasion. It is simply because of a change of circumstances in my personal life.
“After (sadly unsuccessful) attempts to get onto the local property market I have found myself with an alternative offer I simply couldn’t refuse. That being to move onto, and do up, a 1940’s wooden boat and make it my home. Whilst it is my full intention to bring this boat up to Bangor and live on it up here, due to the work needed on it – and it’s current location around Norfolk – it might be upwards of a year before I can do that.
“It is my feeling that it would be wrong for me to campaign to be a local representative when I know I will be away from Bangor for such a length of time at the start of the next term.
“I look forward immensely to completing the rest of this term here in Bangor. I hope also one day I might be so humbled to once again serve my community here, but it won’t be during this next Council term.”
