June 10, 2023 • 44 mins
This week Justin spoke with WMUR meteorologist Matt Hoenig about the wildfires in Canada that lead to a tough week of breathing in New England, how climate change is playing a factor in making weather more extreme everywhere, but especially in New England, and an unusual deadly weather event in Puerto Rico.
Then Justin speaks with Scott Cloutier of Manchester True Collaborative about Manchester Pride Week, the importance of Pride this year when the LGBTQ+ community is under attack from culture war politicians, and much more!
Then Justin speaks with Scott Cloutier of Manchester True Collaborative about Manchester Pride Week, the importance of Pride this year when the LGBTQ+ community is under attack from culture war politicians, and much more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome to All of Our Time,the only radio show that has somehow won
a Tony, a Grammy and anOscar. I don't know how it happened,
but here we are. I've beendevastatingly handsome hosts Justin mccons of.
This week on overtime, we talkedto Scott Coutier of Manchester True Collaborative about
Pride Week, which gets on ourway today or tonight in Manchester. Talk
(00:30):
all about that why pride is soimportant, especially now where you have presidential
candidates running around and want to cancelgay people forever and trans people especially look
at you, Ronda Santis and MikePence. Also we talked to Matt Honig
of WMU are. You may havenoticed this week that it was impossible to
breathe due to wildfire smoke coming fromCanada, So we talk a little bit
(00:53):
about about that, why that wasunusual, if we can expect more stuff
like that. Also, porterco she'sgot slammed with a very unusual heatwave,
which so if you're a weather dorcyou are really going to enjoy that subject.
But it's an interesting conversation about whatNew England might be in the store
for as climate change continues to getworse, and instead of just speculating on
it, I got an actual bonafide meteorologist to tell people what's what because
(01:17):
he went to college for that andI went to college for professional wrestling,
and those are two very different things. I don't know if you noticed that.
Also this week, what happened thisweek, well, just yesterday,
I'm taping this on this portion ofthe show on Friday. Spoiler alert,
the show's pre taped. I don'tcome in on Saturdays because they don't pay
me enough. They paid me moreand coming into the show live. But
also this week, Donald Trump indictedagain, this time for seven federal counts.
(01:42):
And as someone who has been fortunateenough to not be a participant in
the justice system except for that onetime I had jury duty, which was
a nightmare. Quick sidebar, ifyou are ever unfortunate enough to be to
do a crime or be accused ofa crime that goes to a jury trial,
(02:02):
absolutely make sure you get that toa jury trial, because I was
on one jury a few years ago, and I think I'm scheduled for jury
duty again in August, which isanother nightmare. But juries are think of
think of getting twelve people you don'town together and you know at least half
of them are going to be dumb, and that it was more than half
in the jury I was in,I thought it was in banana end.
(02:24):
But anyway, the guy got awayor got away or gout off with whatever
he was accused of in the jurytrial I was in. So if you
have to go to trial, makesure you get a jury trial. Okay,
that's all I'm saying. So DonaldTrump was indicted, and as I
was saying, not having been adefendant in the criminal process, I can
say this when when you go federalwith something, when a federal prosecutor decides
(02:51):
he wants to put some charges onyou, that's a rap because those those
dudes do not lose. Now,I'm not gonna try and tell you that.
I believe every single time someone hasbeen accused of some federal stuff,
it's been warranted. We know thatthe justice system has been weaponized, especially
against persons of color, for yearsand years years. However, what I
am saying is when you get toa federal level, it's usually something that
(03:16):
that's pretty lock stock and barrel.Federal prosecutors have a ninety nine point six
percent conviction rate. So if andthey haven't even gotten to the stuff where
he tried to overthrow the elected governmentof the United States, that we haven't
even gotten to that yet. Thisis just him maybe selling some two super
top secret documents to the Saudis foran exchange for some golf tournaments. That's
(03:38):
that's just my theory. But ifthat proves to be the case, yeah,
Donald Trump might be. He mightbe wearing that orange jumpsuit that you've
seen in all those photoshops. I'mnot holding my breath until it actually happens.
There's been too many times when DonaldTrump's kicked out a two and a
half for me to be excited aboutsome federal charges. When I see the
(03:58):
dude in the leg irons, thenwe can pop the champagne. Until then,
I'm of the opinion that nothing's gonnahappen. But maybe I'm just trying
to reverse jinks the whole thing.Who knows what else happened this week.
Well, I'll talk a little bitmore about this at the end of the
show. But the Saudis essentially boughtprofessional men's golf in the United States,
which is problematic, right, nota lot of people watch golf. I
(04:25):
watched the Majors. I play alot of golf, and I'm terrible at
it, but I don't really watchit on a weekend, week out basis.
But as we know that, youknow, with all the Jamal Kashogi
stuff, and they're they're various humanrights abuses, Saudis aren't exactly great actors.
Now they're buying more like if you'vegot to dig into the finances of
the of the Saudi government and whatthey're doing in the United States, Like
(04:48):
it's not just it's not just golf. I mean, they're gonna at some
point they're gonna buy an NBA team, at some point, They're probably gonna
buy an NFL team, at somepoint they might uh, they're gonna start
buying up real estate in the UnitedStates. This is kind of a colonization
by capitalism that usually the US goesand does to other countries, and the
(05:09):
the folks in Saudi Arabia are kindof flipping the script on. So I
don't really know enough about big timefinances and uh and those sorts of things
to give a detailed analysis. Inthe coming weeks, we'll have I'll have
some folks on they know a littlebit more about that than I do,
but it is it is something tokeep an eye on for sure. I
know you're probably saying, oh,you know who cares about PGA tour and
(05:31):
you're that's fine because watching golf mostof the time is coma inducing except for
the me I like the British Open. But but yeah, it's it's something
worth keeping an eye on. Allright, let's take a time out and
when we come back, we'll startthe show off with with Matt Honig of
WMURE talking about these wildfires and breathingin that smoke which is probably not a
(05:51):
good idea this week and more that'snext on overtime. Keep it right here
joining me today on over time.You see him on WMU. Are you
also hearing sometimes on our radio stationsmeteorologist Matt Honick. Matt thinks for I
being on the program, thanks forhaving me justin appreciate it, no problem.
(06:12):
And it's been kind of a weirdweek for weather. We're taking this
on Thursday, so hopefully we're pastthe worst of it. But wildfire smoke
from wildfires in Nova Scotia and alittle bit in Quebec because I mean,
it's way down into New England.Tuesday, I felt like in this region
was the worst here, Like inManchester it was a little bit a little
bit orangey, and even in Rochesterwhere I live, you know, go
(06:34):
outside to walk around and I feltlike a ten pound anvil was on my
chest. Is we've seen this happenedon the West coast, but this is
really the first time I've I canremember, and I've lived in New Hampshire
all my life wildfire smoke from NovaScotia coming to New England. Is this
a phenomenon that's that's new? Definitelywhen it comes to this year, this
(06:55):
has been a very unusual year whenit comes to wildfires in can It's been
an unusually high volume of fires burningup there. And it's kind of weird
because in the past couple of weeksthough, the wildfires have been kind of
or at least the smoke has beencoming in all different directions. So back
in mid May those fires were burningout in Alberta, we had hazy skies
(07:16):
overhead. Then last week, likeyou mentioned, we had the fires from
Nova Scotia. And this week thesmoke is from fires up in central and
northern parts of Quebec, so they'recoming in from the west, the east
and now in the north and certainly, yeah, Tuesday was the toughest day
in terms of air quality for ushere in northern New England. That smoke
was very low to the ground,so it wasn't just that hazy orange,
(07:40):
kind of eerie movie like appearance ofthe sky, but it was really tough
to breathe for people who were reallysensitive to it, those with asthma and
lung conditions probably to not have thebest day breathing wise, and air quality
across the Northeast really has been verypoor. Unfortunately, the West has been
dealing with this for the past coupleof years and it's not uncommon for them
(08:01):
to have really poor air quality likewhat we've seen here. It's just so
much more unusual for tapping over theEast coast because when they have fires out
west, yeah, the smoke travelsover to us here in the East,
but it's way high up in thesky and there's usually no air quality concerns.
This time with it being so closeto us geographically, that's why you
know, we've had that lower levelsmoke and certainly that kind of eerie appearance
(08:24):
outside. Yeah, it was justI saw a tweet before before we hopped
on the zoom together. So itwas the third worst day for air quality
in the US, the other twobeing September thirteenth and fourteenth of twenty twenty,
which over the last three you know, with the pandemic and everything,
kind of forget that those were reallylike horrific wildfires out west that year.
There was a lot going on thatyear, as it turns out, but
(08:46):
it's it's yeah, you've seen WestCoast people kind of like giving tips on
how to deal with this and stufflike that. What in Europe? Was
it just drought that led to thesefires? In the eastern part of Canada's
usually a pretty wet region, youknow, from from what I understand,
you're the meteor all just not me, but from what I understand they,
you know, Canada's cold and wet, just like we are winter to spring.
(09:11):
Yeah, I'll start by saying anythingI say is purely speculation. I'm
sure that they'll be investigating what's happeningin the weeks and months to come,
but you know, we have hada stretch now, especially in northern New
England and southeastern Canada of drier thanaverage weather for the past couple of weeks.
I know, certainly during the endof May there was some big time
(09:31):
warmth and not a lot of rainto go along with it. And this
is the time of year, ofcourse where people start going outdoors more so
it's certainly possible that humans may haveeven started these fires. Again, very
hard to say at this point,but it's certainly unusual for this to be
happening so early in the season.Two. Canada's peak wildfire season is really
(09:52):
mid July through mid September, andit's already, you know, early June,
and we've had the same amount ofuh, you know, acres burned
up north than what they would seein an entire year. So and you
know, the long term weather patterndoes not really bring a lot of rain
to Eastern Canada in the days andweeks to come. So unfortunately, this
(10:13):
may be a situation that either staysas bad as it is or maybe even
gets a little bit worse. Yeah, we're talking with that honey of a
WMR meteorologist, and I think ifyou, if you live in New England,
you're kind of forced to become somewhatof a weather dorc right, because
they're so you know, you canexperience all four seasons sometimes in one day,
you know, not to let alonea week or a month or so.
(10:35):
But just anecdotally, you know,talking with my friends who have lived
here a long time, it suredoes seem like, you know, there's
been lots of conversation about the effectiveclimate change and what that's going to look
like as far as you know,what more wildfires. You know, when
we get storms, they're bigger,but they don't happen as often. As
a meteorologist, have you seen apattern start to emerge where things like that
(10:58):
are happening. Yeah, that's areally good question, and I think the
short answer is, yeah, therehas been very clear cut evidence that we
are seeing changes to our weather andclimate patterns here in New England. I
mean, certainly, you know,we're not immune from going from ninety degrees
like it was last week to whatfifties cold rain over the weekends. Yeah,
(11:20):
yeah, I mean it was evensnowing on top of Mount Washington yesterday.
So you know, June can bea volatile month and it is a
volatile time of year, but weare certainly seeing a correlation in the past
couple of years. Of course,the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
and other greenhouse gases that are contributingto a warming climate. And we're seeing
(11:43):
more extremes here in New England.You know, we're not We're used to
extremes. This is not something completelyout of the ordinary, but the extremes
are getting more extreme. You know, we are setting way more record high
temperatures than what we used to ensure. The obvious argument is records are meant
to be broken, but we arenow consistently setting record after record after record.
That is something that's highly unusual.We're seeing more of these flash droughts
(12:07):
in the summertime. Yeah, maybewe're not seeing as many strong storms in
the fall and winter, but thosestorms are producing stronger winds, more snowfall,
and I think that's going to bea pattern that continues as long as
the Earth continues. It's trend whenit comes to warming. Yeah, so
in European and can we you know, can we expect more unfortunately, more
(12:28):
events like you know, a wildfirein a spot you don't expect it,
which leads to, you know,leads to everybody's got to put their masks
back on that we had tucked awaylast year from COVID, but now yeah,
occasionally we're going to put them backon for the air quality. Are
we're going to continue to see eventslike this propagate? And if so,
it is going to be more likewhat we've seen in these last few weeks
wildfires? Are? Is it goingto be flooding? What do you what
(12:50):
do you think are the most likelythings we're going to have to deal with
in this region over the next let'ssay, five ten years or so.
Not that's a big question, butI mean, and who knows what's going
to happen, But what do youthink is in our future? Yeah,
and you're right, it is abig question. And I think the short
answer is we're still waiting to seeand there's still a lot more research that
needs to be done. I'll justsay this. You know, climate change
(13:15):
is not directly causing these wildfires,but things that climate change does impact our
temperatures and precipitation. When you havehot weather, when you have dry weather,
that's a perfect setup for wildfire.So if we get more heat spells,
more dry spells, yeah, that'sprobably going to correlate to more wildfires.
It's certainly something that we've been watching, and there seems to be a
(13:39):
trend in that direction that both youknow, in Canada and out west,
there is that wildfire season that isgrowing longer and is growing more intense.
Here in New England, there aresome studies that show we're going to get
more of these flash droughts in thesummertime. So there certainly could be some
local wildfire concerns as well, butthe bigger picture probably is that we are
(14:00):
going to see you more intense stormsoff of the New England coastline. And
I know it's kind of a confusingthing to think about, how can we
get more droughts but also get morestorms at the same time, and both
can be true, right, Andthat kind of goes back to the more
extremes, Right, We'll get periodsof dry weather maybe in the spring,
summer fall months, and then overthe winter maybe we'll get these longer stretches
(14:22):
of stormy weather with maybe not asmany storms, but more intense rainfall,
heavier snow, stronger winds, allthose things around the table and can coexist
at the same time. Yeah,we've we've experienced what I like to call
Florida rain at times here where it'slike it's nice, it's nice, it's
nice. It's a day luge,all right, it's over with. But
we got two and a half bagesof rain. So it's been pretty wild
(14:43):
lately. But talking about Honey ofWmure, you seem onun channel, now
you hear them on our radio stationsas well. I just want to ask
you about this as well, Matt. There's there's an unusual event in Puerto
Rico as far as the weather thefolks on that island are experiencing. He
indices this past week approaching a hundretwenty degrees and from what I understand this
this has to do with a duststorm from the sand from the Saharan Desert
(15:05):
which has made its way over towardsthe Caribbean. Is this something you've kept
your eye on as a meteorologist andwhat's happened down in Puerto Rico. So
I just saw this pop up onmy Twitter feed. I think it was
on Wednesday. So yeah, thisis really intense heat for Puerto Rico and
(15:26):
the Caribbean. You know, weatherhere in the United States and the continental
the United States moves from west toeast, typically down in Puerto Rico,
the weather pattern is more east towest, so a lot of the dust
you were talking about, yeah,it's coming off of Africa, and that's
just how the weather pattern there travels. It's completely reversed, and that's just
how the global wind pattern works.You know. Obviously, Puerto Rico is
(15:48):
not immune from you know, swampyheat, that's the way I like to
call it. You know, itnever gets intensely hot, but with the
humidity, it can feel very uncomfortable. And thankfully, the people down they
are used to it, you know, folks who live there, you know,
they're used to year round warmth andhumidity, and of course now we're
really entering that that humid, aridseason when they're getting you know, more
(16:08):
showers and thunderstorms as the summer setsin, that dust layer that you were
mentioning is actually drying out the airmass, and when you have drier air,
the air can actually get hotter.So for instance, you know,
they are used to seeing temperatures inthe summertime upper eighties, low nineties,
but you lower the humidity there justa little bit and it allows the temperature
(16:30):
to get even higher, like midto upper nineties and that's more like what
they've been seeing actual air temperature.Then you factor in that kind of Caribbean
like air masks, and that's whatmaking that's making it feel like it's one
hundred and ten one hundred and twentydegrees. So just a little bit of
dry air can be a really seriousthing for them, and for folks in
Puerto Rico, that's a big difference, you know, just a couple of
degrees, because this is heat thatthey really have not seen in many,
(16:55):
many years. Yeah, folks inthe southern part of the US and the
Caribbean. If anyone who's ever goinga flight from from Boston and let's say
Louisiana, why do you step outon the plane and you feel that that
Louisiana heat. It's like, ooh, it's a little bit different than I'm
used to. But but yeah,like you said, I mean, it's
a it's a it's a climate youused to. But if it goes it
goes haywire just a little bit.I mean, it's it sounds like a
(17:17):
nightmare. And Puerto Rico has hadsome real challenges as far as you know,
extreme weather in the past, youknow, three or four years.
Yeah, I mean, a coupleof years ago they were hit hard by
a very devastating hurricane, and Iknow the clean up there is you know,
still going on, especially in someof the poorer, more sort of
rundown communities there. Of course,you know, many of the islands were
not just Puerto Rico, many theislands were hit by by said hurricane.
(17:40):
And the other thing we talked abouttoo, when it comes to this big
warm spell recently, are the watertemperatures you know that have been slowly but
steadily warming. And you know that'sa that's an island territory there that's completely
surrounded by water, of course,so you increase the water temperature there even
a degree or two in the nextdecade, and that's going to have a
perfect found impact on their climate.Yeah, it's you get more algae,
(18:03):
you get more jellyfish. You know, if you're in the fishing industry,
suddenly your your livelihood is impacted.I guess it's a good lesson that everything
impacts everything, and we maybe shouldtry to think about the way we live,
in the way we consume and thingslike that. Right. Yeah,
you know, it's funny how tohear people now saying you know, the
weather is so extreme. You know, I never remember seeing this kind of
(18:23):
weather growing up, and this isgoing to slowly become the norm, right,
these kind of back and forth upand down weather events. You know,
I think as long as we're onthis trajectory, it's it's while I
don't I certainly am not a doomsdayor I don't think you know, humans
are going to you know, justcompletely die off and that society is going
to end. I think we doneed to take drastic steps and at the
(18:47):
very least, we're going to needto learn how to adapt to all these
different changes. And it's still inour control. You know, we have
not come to a point yet whereyou know, this changing climate that we've
been experiencing for the past few decadeshas just completely you know, gone out
of our hands. We still havethe choice to make in the next couple
of years. You know, whatcan we do to one just not make
the earth our dumpster? Right?And two how can we maybe even reverse
(19:08):
some of these impacts. Yeah,we probably shouldn't wait around too much longer,
but yeah, you're right. Still, still it's still time to get
this thing turned around. That holdingof a WNU R before we let you
go. I've as a weather dudeand you're on TV. So when you're
you know, I've done some sportsthings on TV and you always get much
more recognition for that than when you'reon the radio because people see your face.
(19:29):
Do you get like if your forecastis off by like a little bit,
if you say it's, oh,it's gonna snow three to six inches,
but then it snows like four toeight or whatever. Do people come
up to you in the grocery storeand like give you a bunch of malarkey?
Or how are people generally good toyou as a weather guy when they
sea out in public? I willsay this when they see me in person,
they are generally very respectful. Peoplehere in New Hampshire have been so
(19:56):
kind to me since since coming here, and I truly love the state.
It's been so great. I lovethe challenge that comes with forecasting New Hampshires
weather. With that said, thepeople of New Hampshire are very good at
keeping you honest and keeping you accountable, which is great because that's how you
become a better forecaster. So whileI maybe don't get that, you know,
constructive criticism in person over email oversocial media, even some voicemails we
(20:22):
get at the station. People letyou know, and I'll be the first
to admit it is not an easyplace to forecast. You know, this
is something I've been kind of watchingas a kid, and and even I
haven't been able to figure out aforecasting yet. And I think even some
of the season veterans are still learningthings, you know, week after week,
year after year as they continue theircareer. Yeah, I don't think
I get really approached in a negativeway in person, which is which is
(20:47):
good because I'm not, honestly notsure how I would react. I'm not
the type of person that enjoys confrontation, so I'd probably just end up like
apologizing, be like, oh sorry, you know, we'll get them next
time, we'll try better, becauseI just would genuinely feel bad. You
know, obviously we don't like gettingit wrong. But at the same time,
you know, mother nature is reallygood at growing in skirtballs. Yeah,
I feel like forecasting in New England'slike all Madden level. If you
(21:11):
went somewhere like Idaho, You're like, yeah, that's gonna be the same,
like it always is. Calling thewinner and warming and su what do
you want. So, it's sogood on you for for taking on the
the end boss of weather here inNew England. But that howning Wmure be
nice here to him in the commentsand if you see him in the street,
be nice to him then too.Thanks so much for joining us and
kind of giving us an explainer hereon overtime. I appreciate it. Justin.
(21:33):
This is a lot of fun.Thank you so much. Joy to
be here on overtime. Is oneof the co chairs of the Manchester True
Collaborative, one of the organizations helpingput on Manchester Pride, which starts next
week, actually starts this weekend andreally uh kay gets going in full next
week. Scott Clue here is herewith the Scott. How you doing.
(21:55):
I am doing great. Thanks forhaving me justin. Great to have you
here, and first of all toa little bit about what Manchester True Collaborative
is, what you folks do andwhat you're all about. Yeah, absolutely
so. Manchester True Collaborative is anew program through the YWCA New Hampshire.
We just set up an advisory counciland we are looking forward to hopefully becoming
our own nonprofit in the next coupleof years, but with the YWCA New
(22:18):
Hampshire's assistance, we have worked toput on this Pride festival this year.
We're also looking to do more lgbtQI plus support in Manchester throughout the year,
put on more events, offer supportprograms, youth summits, other things
related to the community, just tohelp out. We really look forward to
doing more for everybody. That's excellent. So, like like you said,
(22:41):
it's a new it's a new project, true collaborative part of the YWCA.
When da when did Manchester true collaborativekind of get going? When when did
it start up? Yeah? Wereally got started this January. We knew
that Manchester needed an organization to runwith Pride. As as some folks know,
Queen City Pride existed last year.They are no longer an organization in
(23:03):
Manchester, so we kind of steppedup and formed the Advisory Council and made
sure that we would still have atleast a Pride festival. But we're looking
forward to doing a lot more thanthat. Yeah, and it's Pride Week
that starts. We're taping this onFriday, you're gonna hear it here of
course on Saturday and Saturday Night isthe first event of Pride Week and it's
really it's a it's a whole thingwhich culminates in the Pride Festival Veterans Park
(23:26):
on June the seventeenth. So wasit whose idea was it to do like
events every week? Because if I'mnot mistaken, last year my wife and
daughter went. I wasn't able toattend. But last year it was just
a one or two day event oryeah, it was a one day event
last year the festival in arms Park. We decided this year let's move it
(23:47):
up to Elm Street. Get everybodyreally involved. You know. The big
goal for Manchester True Collaborative is toreally bring all of the local organizations into
a collaborative space, to get everybodyto support the lgbt QIA plus community.
We feel that it's very important toto bring everybody in all the local organizations
and make sure that they understand,you know, why it's important to support
(24:08):
but also to learn. Everybody needsto be able to learn, and I
think in New Hampshire, you know, we're continuing to bring lots of diversity
and new new ideas to the groupsright on. And how's the support been
from the from the business community fromthe local community. How's how's the reaction
been. It's incredible, Yeah,it's it's absolutely incredible. Honestly, I
think at this point where we're kindof fighting off people that still want to
(24:30):
sign up to to be vendors andwhatnot at the festival, but super supportive.
We're looking forward to an incredible dayon the seventeenth especially, and I
think Elm Street's just going to bepacked full of very happy people. We're
talking with Scott Cludier. He isone of the co chairs of Manchester True
Collaborative, one of the groups that'smaking Manchester Pride Week happened this coming week.
So let me ask you. Sowhen I was when I was growing
(24:52):
up, it was it was amuch different world. Uh. And just
for full disclosure, I'm a I'ma CIS gender straight dude, right,
So I come from the as kindof an outsider perspective. But when I
was in high school, New Hampshirewasn't especially a very welcoming place towards folks
in the LGBTQ plus community. Iwas in drama club and involved with a
lot of that, so I hada little more exposure to to gay folks
(25:15):
and and buy folks and trans folksat an earlier time than maybe most folks
around here did. New Hampshire hascome a long ways now. Granted it
has been a long time since Iwas in high school, so years and
years and years ago, but NewHampshire has come a long way since then.
What changes have you seen over overthe years as far as you know
how the community is treated in thisstate. Yeah, I think I think
(25:37):
we've seen, you know, hugestrides and steps forward for the community being
accepted in the state. Um,you know, we still have a long
way to go though, Like Iwas saying before, I think, you
know, we've seen a lot morediversity coming to New Hampshire, but we
definitely can can see a lot moreum over the years. We've done these
Pride festivals the last four or fiveyears with with different organizations, and we've
(26:00):
seen a huge outpouring of support andattendance. But in the same token,
we've also seen a bit of protestingand other things happening in more recent time.
You know, just across the UnitedStates, we've seen a lot of
different things happening. Over seventy fivelaws have been passed against lgbt QIA plus
folks. So unfortunately, you know, this is a time of year where
(26:22):
we want everybody to be happy,but there are quite a few folks that
are likely scared to get out thereand participate. This year, it's it
just feels a little bit more angryand fearful and protesting. So we're encouraging
everybody that to come out and havea good time. And we are,
you know, we are a securespace and a safe space for folks to
(26:42):
come and have a happy, happyday. Yeah, and and I'll kind
of put a finer point on it, like New Hampshire obviously is the home
of the first of the nation primaryof presidential candidates, specifically Round de Santis
and Mike Pence will be in thestate who have been extremely hostile towards you
know, the lgbt QA plus community, and so you know, with the
you know, with the spotlight onNew Hampshire, you know, I think
(27:04):
this is me personally again sisteonder straightto talking here, but I think it's
more important than ever to show thatNew Hampshire is a place of inclusivity and
that we have love for our ourgay and trans brothers and sisters. And
is there more of a resolve withinthe community to like say, hey,
you're not scaring us software how howdoes it is the more apprehension Talk to
(27:26):
me a little bit about that.Yeah, I mean, I think this
year we definitely feel the apprehension.I think the you know, the the
outpouring of the media kind of negativityaround these laws that are being passed and
things create sort of that fear andthe space that you know, especially young
queer folks are feeling very uncomfortable.Um, but in general, you know,
we are still out here fighting.We're we're here, we're queer,
(27:48):
We're not going anywhere, yea,And we will continue to push that,
you know. So I'm encouraging everybodyto get out there and be there.
Do not let you know, aprotester or somebody try to scare you away.
I mean, really, that's exactlywhat they want, right, they
want us to not want to doany of these things. We're going to
continue to push and celebrate and beexactly who we are excellence. Let's talk
(28:08):
a little bit about some of theevents that are going on. So as
you're hearing this tonight Saturday, Layersof Identity, a visual exploration is going
to take place of the Mosaic ArtCollective. Tell me a little bit about
that. Yeah, that's our partner. Queer Elective is putting on an art
show at the Mosaic Art Collective.So it'll be an incredible exploration of identity
(28:30):
where they have all kinds of differentartwork that is related to the lgbt QI
plus community. All Right, Junethe twelfth, which is let me put
what day is the twelfth? Isthat on Monday Day, that's Monday,
you have a Queens Cities a Dragat the Stark Brewery. I'm going to
infer that this is some sort ofdrag show at the Start Brewery and my
reading comprehensions pretty good. Tell mea little bit about that. Yeah,
(28:52):
that'll be an incredible performance. So, queens Cities a Drag is a bi
monthly drag show at Start Brewery,but this month we'll be doing a Pride
special where the four folks that arein Queen Cities a Drag Troop are also
bringing in folks from House of MarvelEntertainment, which is another drag troop in
Manchester. And so they'll be abouteight performers going on on Monday night and
(29:12):
it'll be an incredible performance of justyou know and celebration of pride. So
there are performers like Veronica of Force, Cheechee, Marvel Luke, Lere Skyler
hardly know her. There's a bunchof queens and kings that'll be doing an
amazing job. So we'd love tohave folks come out for that excellent Now
we're talking about Scott Clotier, aManchester true collaborative part of the Manchester Pride
(29:33):
Week that's going on this coming week. Youth Pride Hop is going to take
place on Tuesday at Boards and Bruis. That's an afternoon event. And trying
to figure out if I can bringmy daughter and some of our friends to
that. We gotta make the scheduleand work out. But what's what's Youth
Pride Hop all about? Yeah,I'd love to have you show up with
with our your kids. Absolutely,this is a really exciting one. I
think you know right now, queeryouth are feeling a lot of the pain
(29:57):
of you know, the media attentionand the negativity around the laws being passed.
So this Pride Hop is going tobe a sort of hop around Manchester
to over thirteen different businesses that aresafe spaces and they'll be offering discounts free
stuff for for the kids showing up. So it'll start at Boards and Bruise
with a fun pride mocktail, andthen we'll head off to a bunch of
(30:19):
different businesses around town and uh andhave a nice little hop. Yeah,
let me pauseit it for a secondbecause you mentioned career, you with feeling
kind of the uh, kind ofthe spotlight and you know it's a little
more dangerous. It's kind of atwo sided coin, I think, right
because right now it's a Again,this is just my point of view.
It seems like it's safer than everto be out as as a young person.
(30:41):
But it's also you know, there'swith with social media with the focus
on them. It's also feel it'snever been completely safe to be out as
a as a young person. Butjust from anecdotally, uh, you know,
see, you know, my daughter'sgay, just a full disclosure.
And she has friends that are trendsin the in the chorus and band and
the and the drama club over itsSpaulding High School, which has been a
(31:03):
very very welcome community. I gotto give them their props so they there
is a greater support system than ever, I think. But also with that,
you kind of it's a shared experienceof you know, these are the
dangers. Here's where I don't feelsafe. But do you think you feel
it's more of a positive than anegative at this point for queer youth or
is it just kind of is ittenuous right now? I definitely think it's
(31:25):
a bit tenuous. I think,you know, queer youth are in that
space where, yes, they areabsolutely accepted in the spaces that they're accepted,
they are fully accepted, right andthere there is a lot of folks
that you know, you know,we'll say, yeah, hey, I'm
an ally, I've got a gayfamily member, and I'm all for it.
But I think right now is thetime to really step up and notice,
like, look, seventy five lawshave been passed this year alone,
(31:47):
right to prevent queer folks from beingable to get medical care, to prevent
them from even doing drag shows insome states, right, I mean,
this is just dressing up in acostume and doing a performance. Apparently is
is illegal, uh, you knowin a couple of states. So it's
a bit shocking. And I think, you know, social media, like
you said, brings brings a wholeother element into it, and young folks
(32:08):
just you know, tend to seethe negative that's been brought up in that
that space. So UM, I'llcontinue to you know, work to encourage
it with the whole team at ManchesterTrue to to get you know, youth
feeling like they have space. Butyou know, we've seen it take effect
right here in Manchester. We werecently lost a member of the trans youth
(32:30):
community here in Manchester UM and andit's it's a very very sad moment when
somebody feels as though they can't youknow, fully be themselves, but also
they don't know where they can goget help um or where they can go
to just feel accepted. And that'sthat's what is so important about all of
this is really coming out and asan ally stepping up and saying, hey,
(32:52):
I see what's going on and thisis unacceptable. We have to be
able to step up because we canonly do so much. Those of us
in the community are are continue tofight, but we need everybody to step
up and do that. Right.It's one thing to say you're about it,
it's another thing to be about it. And allies gotta gotta be about
it, no more than they saythey're great. You put a rainbow thing
on your Twitter avatar, that's great. You gotta get out in the streets
(33:14):
and sometimes it support things like likePride Weekend some other direct actions. So
that's just me on my soapbox,my beat. I love it. So
we also have a let's say,Pride karaokes at the Stark Brewer. I'm
so if I go there day,do I have to just sing songs about
Pride? Or can I just singwhatever I want? You can sing whatever
you want. We are just makingsure that everybody feels as though they can
(33:35):
come and it's an open space tohave a good time, all right,
because I because you know, Ihave a certain karaoke repertoire. It's like
three songs, and not that theydon't have a whole lot to do with
Pride, because it's just here's,by the way, here's the karaoke secret.
I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you thisguy. You might know this already,
but here's my karaoke sacret. Youpick a song everybody knows, all
right, They sing along here themselvesand think you were great. That's the
(33:58):
charaoke secret. That is absolutely mysecret as well. Don't have a few
beers for us, especially during allergyseasons. You know, I don't want
to be out there singing any singingany songs with the stuff. He knows.
Fems and Them's night at the BreezewayPub, which is not about a
stone's throw from the radio station hereon June fifteenth. What's that all about?
Yeah, Fems and thems. Thisis the first time we host a
night call Fems and Them's and we'resuper excited. It's for folks that identify
(34:22):
as them, non binary or femyou know, our our lesbian friends.
Really it's an open night for everybodyto come and have a great time where
you have a couple of comedians performing, There'll be music, dancing, food,
it'll just again be a great time. But it's really a big accepting
space for those that don't necessarily fitinto some of the typical g part of
(34:43):
the LGBT community. You know,we want to really put a focus on
some of our non binary friends andour lesbian friends right on January January,
June sixteenth, we have the flag. I don't even want to think about
winner right now. June sixteenth,flag raising at City Hall. That seems
like a big deal that you knowa city is willing to raise the Pride
flag like that make it an efficientIt's one thing if you know businesses haven't
(35:06):
hanging in the windows or folks too. It's another thing that the city,
you know, puts their government nameon it, so to speak, and
says, hey, we're doing this, this is important to us. Absolutely.
Yeah. And may Or Joyce Craig, she's been just an incredible advocate
for the community in the last fouror five years, and this will be
the fifth year. I believe thatwe've raised the flag and she'll she'll do
a proclamation. But the exciting partof the flag raising this year is we've
(35:28):
actually got some career youth from ManchesterWest High School coming to raise the flag
for us. So I'm super excitedto really give them the spotlight because I
think that they need that spotlight.But yeah, twelve pm on Friday,
the day before Pride, we willraise that Pride flag at City Hall and
then Veterans Park on Saturday will becovered in Pride flags and can't wait.
That's fantastic. And then Saturday nightdrag Roulette at the Breezeway Pub, which
(35:51):
I've actually attended before. This ispre COVID when I was still going places.
It's exactly what it sounds like.There's a big wheel, you spin
it and then and I think theperformer that you spend comes up and they
do their thing. Uh, it'sa it's a good time. But let
me ask you this because I've assomeone who's an ally, I've always felt
like I want to support spaces likethe Breezeway Pop. I want to spend
(36:13):
my money there. I don't wantto show that I'm all about it.
But also I feel like sometimes like, well, this place really isn't for
me, and I'm kind of like, am I making people feel uncomfortable by
being here? What? What's what'syour? And you know, the community
is not a monolitht so I'm sureeverybody has our an opinions, But well,
how do you feel about things likethat? You know, I think
there's mixed reviews. I think youknow, coming into a queer space,
um and accepting you know, what'shappening there is definitely a big part about
(36:37):
being an ally. I would say, you know, come into the space
and know that you're there as anally and not necessarily there to just you
know, do your own thing andparty, I think right will kind of
you know, get into some ofthose spaces there. There's some funny situations
we typically run into. You know, lots of bachelorette parties like to go
to a drag show, right,which is fun. But when an event
is focused on pride, you reallywant to get in there and let the
(37:00):
queer folks be the focus of thatevent. So definitely come out. We
need the allies. It's so importantto have them. But you know,
no, your space, No,when you get in there that it's not
necessarily all about you. It's nota you know, a heteronormative kind of
thing. Have a good time inthere, but you know, yeah,
no your space. It's like theRock used to say, no your role
and shut your mouth exactly. That'sit's a great way to put it.
(37:23):
It's not a bad life motto either. Sometimes every time, but sometimes.
And then we have the APTS partyon Sunday the seventeenth. Make sure that's
Saturday the seventeenth. Yeah, whenmy daughter graduating this week and all the
other stuff that's going on. Ihave, I'm not that smart to begin
with. I don't know what dayswhy, but the Pride after Party Saturday
the seventeenth at eight pm, andI'm guessing that's just a whoa, we
(37:45):
did it. That is going tobe a woo, we did it.
This is the first time we'll hostedat Jewel Nightclub. Super excited. It
is going to be an incredible show. We have DJ Andreas Thomas coming up.
She currently performs in Boston local barslike d Bar in Legacy, but
she used to DJ at three onethree and Paradigm which was an old gay
(38:05):
bar in Manchester which many folks thatare my age now I'm aging myself,
but many folks used to go toover I would say now over ten years
ago. But I'm We're super excitedto bring her back up here and get
the community thrilled to have her again. And of course the main event is
June seventeenth, the Pride Festival atVeterans Park one pm to seven pm in
(38:27):
Manchester. A lot of communities thatare doing their own Pride extravaganzas and uh
Scott I found, like I said, back of the day, used to
be only the big cities did Prideof festivals like but you know New York,
Boston, you know, Philadelphia.It had to be like like a
major city, yss city. Nownow places you know, Rochester, rilev
does one they do in August,but still that you know, the cops
(38:49):
come out in rainbow police things,which is it's is stunning but happy transformation
but pride of It's kind of takeplace almost everywhere at this point, right,
Yeah, absolutely anywhere that you knowthe groups can get together and put
on a great, great day oreven a small event is encouraged, you
know, and in around New Hampshire. I'm happy to see that a lot
of even small cities are doing it. Like you said, Rochester, that's
(39:12):
awesome. Even doing it in Augustis great. Right on, Scott Clintter,
you're here from Manchester True Collaborative.How can folks find out more about
your organization? How can they helpout? And what else do you think
you have coming down the pipeline orif nothing's stone? Yeah, what what
things are you thinking about doing inthe future? Yeah, absolutely so.
If folks want to get involved,they can visit our website Manchester True dot
(39:35):
org. You can follow us onsocial media Manchester True on most socials Instagram,
Facebook, and TikTok, I believeis all of our great socials now.
But yeah, if you want toget involved, you can also volunteer
on our website. There's a littlevolunteer sign up form for the Day of
Pride and the week of Pride Festival. And then, you know, as
far as the future, we arelooking to collaborate more with folks in New
(39:55):
Hampshire. We're hopeful that we'll beable to really folks US some time on
youth, looking to host potentially ayouth summit for local and or all New
Hampshire Gay Straight alliances or youth organizationsat schools, and then and so much
more to come. I you know, in my future, I'd love to
see an LGBT center in Manchester.I definitely love to have a place that
(40:20):
is actually a true safe space thatpeople can go and free to use.
But other than that, we wantto offer more support services and host a
bunch more events. You know,Pride Month is not the only time that
we need to do things for thelgbtq a US community. So we are
hopeful that we will continue on andyou become a nonprofit as I said before,
and we'll have a lot more comingso keep your ears open right on.
(40:43):
Yeah, remember when your favorite brandtakes down the rainbow logo on their
social media site. The struggle continues, so you got to stay vigilant and
help the folks we care about andthe folks we don't even know we care
about yet that we haven't met outthere the community. Scott, thanks so
much for coming in, and Ihope you'll stop buying the future in let
us know what's going on with ManchesterTrue Collaborative. Thank you so much,
Dustin, appreciate it. Welcome backto it all over time thanks to my
(41:08):
guest today on today's episode, VanHoning of Wire also Scott Cloutier, Manchester's
True Collaborative. Make sure you checkout the Pride events going on Manchester or
wherever your city or town is holdinga pride event. I wanted to tell
this quick story before before we gorun out of a show because by Donald
and I were listening to O'sherry byby Steve Perry as one does the other
(41:30):
day on the eighties station, andit reminded me of the best baseball heckle
I ever had, which happened.I remember exactly what had happened. It
was opening dave O seven at FenwayPark. My boy Brian and I were
sitting right across from the visitor's bullpen. You know Fenway, there's in the
bleachers, there's like the visitor's bullpen, then an aisle in their seats.
We were like right on the aisle, so we were right here the Mariner's
(41:52):
bullpen. They're playing the Mariners thatday, and as I recalled, the
Mariners headn't played in like six daysbecause they got snowdown in Cleveland and somewhere
else. And it was like thirtytwo degrees that day. Anyway, it
was it was it was not agreat day to be at the ballpark.
But the Mariners are getting killed.It was like it was something like thirteen
to two or something outrageous like that. I could look up the actual score,
but who's good time for that?And George Cheryl started warming up in
(42:14):
the bullpen and he's about to comein to just eat sumittings in a blowout
game. And my friend Brian looksover and sees, you know, Cheryl
warming up. We've been heckling everybodywarming up. He goes, Cheryl,
that's my mom's name, and everybodykind of started to chuckle in in our
section, and George chryl and waskrd of gave a little chuckle. But
then I had to one up myboy Brian, and I start going,
(42:37):
oh Cheryl, and the whole likethe whole like two rows near us picked
up the song of course they're likeold on hod and George Cheryl had to
step off the mound because he waslaughing, and he kind of looked back
and gave the nod a little likea half cap tip. And that was
(43:00):
easily the best baseball heckle I everhad, except for when I was yelling
at Jose Gian the Washington Nationals andvery very chopped up Spanish that he stunks
or stunk or stinks or wasn't anygood. But but then George Cheryl,
if you're out there, I don'tknow what George Cheryll is up to these
days, but another personal I justhad to get that heckle in. I
(43:22):
think he appreciated it, and Ihope you appreciated that, because I appreciate
you. So make sure you knowcheck out the podcast if you tuned in
halfway through the show on your favoritepodcast app, whether it's the iHeartRadio app,
which is what my bosses prefer youlisten on or iTunes, just Spotify
or all that. Just look forovertime with Justin McConnon. Give us a
five star review because that helps peoplefind it. I guess and all that
(43:44):
sort of stuff, and uh yeah, make sure you tuned in every week.
Of course, you can take theshow wherever you go with that iHeartRadio
app. We will see you nextweek again thanks to Matt Honick and Scott
Clary. And remember boys and girls, Hippies are bad people pretending to be
good. Punks are good people pretendingto be bad. See you next week.
Welcome to All of Our Time,the only radio show that has somehow won
a Tony, a Grammy and anOscar. I don't know how it happened,
but here we are. I've beendevastatingly handsome hosts Justin mccons of.
This week on overtime, we talkedto Scott Coutier of Manchester True Collaborative about
Pride Week, which gets on ourway today or tonight in Manchester. Talk
(00:30):
all about that why pride is soimportant, especially now where you have presidential
candidates running around and want to cancelgay people forever and trans people especially look
at you, Ronda Santis and MikePence. Also we talked to Matt Honig
of WMU are. You may havenoticed this week that it was impossible to
breathe due to wildfire smoke coming fromCanada, So we talk a little bit
(00:53):
about about that, why that wasunusual, if we can expect more stuff
like that. Also, porterco she'sgot slammed with a very unusual heatwave,
which so if you're a weather dorcyou are really going to enjoy that subject.
But it's an interesting conversation about whatNew England might be in the store
for as climate change continues to getworse, and instead of just speculating on
it, I got an actual bonafide meteorologist to tell people what's what because
(01:17):
he went to college for that andI went to college for professional wrestling,
and those are two very different things. I don't know if you noticed that.
Also this week, what happened thisweek, well, just yesterday,
I'm taping this on this portion ofthe show on Friday. Spoiler alert,
the show's pre taped. I don'tcome in on Saturdays because they don't pay
me enough. They paid me moreand coming into the show live. But
also this week, Donald Trump indictedagain, this time for seven federal counts.
(01:42):
And as someone who has been fortunateenough to not be a participant in
the justice system except for that onetime I had jury duty, which was
a nightmare. Quick sidebar, ifyou are ever unfortunate enough to be to
do a crime or be accused ofa crime that goes to a jury trial,
(02:02):
absolutely make sure you get that toa jury trial, because I was
on one jury a few years ago, and I think I'm scheduled for jury
duty again in August, which isanother nightmare. But juries are think of
think of getting twelve people you don'town together and you know at least half
of them are going to be dumb, and that it was more than half
in the jury I was in,I thought it was in banana end.
(02:24):
But anyway, the guy got awayor got away or gout off with whatever
he was accused of in the jurytrial I was in. So if you
have to go to trial, makesure you get a jury trial. Okay,
that's all I'm saying. So DonaldTrump was indicted, and as I
was saying, not having been adefendant in the criminal process, I can
say this when when you go federalwith something, when a federal prosecutor decides
(02:51):
he wants to put some charges onyou, that's a rap because those those
dudes do not lose. Now,I'm not gonna try and tell you that.
I believe every single time someone hasbeen accused of some federal stuff,
it's been warranted. We know thatthe justice system has been weaponized, especially
against persons of color, for yearsand years years. However, what I
am saying is when you get toa federal level, it's usually something that
(03:16):
that's pretty lock stock and barrel.Federal prosecutors have a ninety nine point six
percent conviction rate. So if andthey haven't even gotten to the stuff where
he tried to overthrow the elected governmentof the United States, that we haven't
even gotten to that yet. Thisis just him maybe selling some two super
top secret documents to the Saudis foran exchange for some golf tournaments. That's
(03:38):
that's just my theory. But ifthat proves to be the case, yeah,
Donald Trump might be. He mightbe wearing that orange jumpsuit that you've
seen in all those photoshops. I'mnot holding my breath until it actually happens.
There's been too many times when DonaldTrump's kicked out a two and a
half for me to be excited aboutsome federal charges. When I see the
(03:58):
dude in the leg irons, thenwe can pop the champagne. Until then,
I'm of the opinion that nothing's gonnahappen. But maybe I'm just trying
to reverse jinks the whole thing.Who knows what else happened this week.
Well, I'll talk a little bitmore about this at the end of the
show. But the Saudis essentially boughtprofessional men's golf in the United States,
which is problematic, right, nota lot of people watch golf. I
(04:25):
watched the Majors. I play alot of golf, and I'm terrible at
it, but I don't really watchit on a weekend, week out basis.
But as we know that, youknow, with all the Jamal Kashogi
stuff, and they're they're various humanrights abuses, Saudis aren't exactly great actors.
Now they're buying more like if you'vegot to dig into the finances of
the of the Saudi government and whatthey're doing in the United States, Like
(04:48):
it's not just it's not just golf. I mean, they're gonna at some
point they're gonna buy an NBA team, at some point, They're probably gonna
buy an NFL team, at somepoint they might uh, they're gonna start
buying up real estate in the UnitedStates. This is kind of a colonization
by capitalism that usually the US goesand does to other countries, and the
(05:09):
the folks in Saudi Arabia are kindof flipping the script on. So I
don't really know enough about big timefinances and uh and those sorts of things
to give a detailed analysis. Inthe coming weeks, we'll have I'll have
some folks on they know a littlebit more about that than I do,
but it is it is something tokeep an eye on for sure. I
know you're probably saying, oh,you know who cares about PGA tour and
(05:31):
you're that's fine because watching golf mostof the time is coma inducing except for
the me I like the British Open. But but yeah, it's it's something
worth keeping an eye on. Allright, let's take a time out and
when we come back, we'll startthe show off with with Matt Honig of
WMURE talking about these wildfires and breathingin that smoke which is probably not a
(05:51):
good idea this week and more that'snext on overtime. Keep it right here
joining me today on over time.You see him on WMU. Are you
also hearing sometimes on our radio stationsmeteorologist Matt Honick. Matt thinks for I
being on the program, thanks forhaving me justin appreciate it, no problem.
(06:12):
And it's been kind of a weirdweek for weather. We're taking this
on Thursday, so hopefully we're pastthe worst of it. But wildfire smoke
from wildfires in Nova Scotia and alittle bit in Quebec because I mean,
it's way down into New England.Tuesday, I felt like in this region
was the worst here, Like inManchester it was a little bit a little
bit orangey, and even in Rochesterwhere I live, you know, go
(06:34):
outside to walk around and I feltlike a ten pound anvil was on my
chest. Is we've seen this happenedon the West coast, but this is
really the first time I've I canremember, and I've lived in New Hampshire
all my life wildfire smoke from NovaScotia coming to New England. Is this
a phenomenon that's that's new? Definitelywhen it comes to this year, this
(06:55):
has been a very unusual year whenit comes to wildfires in can It's been
an unusually high volume of fires burningup there. And it's kind of weird
because in the past couple of weeksthough, the wildfires have been kind of
or at least the smoke has beencoming in all different directions. So back
in mid May those fires were burningout in Alberta, we had hazy skies
(07:16):
overhead. Then last week, likeyou mentioned, we had the fires from
Nova Scotia. And this week thesmoke is from fires up in central and
northern parts of Quebec, so they'recoming in from the west, the east
and now in the north and certainly, yeah, Tuesday was the toughest day
in terms of air quality for ushere in northern New England. That smoke
was very low to the ground,so it wasn't just that hazy orange,
(07:40):
kind of eerie movie like appearance ofthe sky, but it was really tough
to breathe for people who were reallysensitive to it, those with asthma and
lung conditions probably to not have thebest day breathing wise, and air quality
across the Northeast really has been verypoor. Unfortunately, the West has been
dealing with this for the past coupleof years and it's not uncommon for them
(08:01):
to have really poor air quality likewhat we've seen here. It's just so
much more unusual for tapping over theEast coast because when they have fires out
west, yeah, the smoke travelsover to us here in the East,
but it's way high up in thesky and there's usually no air quality concerns.
This time with it being so closeto us geographically, that's why you
know, we've had that lower levelsmoke and certainly that kind of eerie appearance
(08:24):
outside. Yeah, it was justI saw a tweet before before we hopped
on the zoom together. So itwas the third worst day for air quality
in the US, the other twobeing September thirteenth and fourteenth of twenty twenty,
which over the last three you know, with the pandemic and everything,
kind of forget that those were reallylike horrific wildfires out west that year.
There was a lot going on thatyear, as it turns out, but
(08:46):
it's it's yeah, you've seen WestCoast people kind of like giving tips on
how to deal with this and stufflike that. What in Europe? Was
it just drought that led to thesefires? In the eastern part of Canada's
usually a pretty wet region, youknow, from from what I understand,
you're the meteor all just not me, but from what I understand they,
you know, Canada's cold and wet, just like we are winter to spring.
(09:11):
Yeah, I'll start by saying anythingI say is purely speculation. I'm
sure that they'll be investigating what's happeningin the weeks and months to come,
but you know, we have hada stretch now, especially in northern New
England and southeastern Canada of drier thanaverage weather for the past couple of weeks.
I know, certainly during the endof May there was some big time
(09:31):
warmth and not a lot of rainto go along with it. And this
is the time of year, ofcourse where people start going outdoors more so
it's certainly possible that humans may haveeven started these fires. Again, very
hard to say at this point,but it's certainly unusual for this to be
happening so early in the season.Two. Canada's peak wildfire season is really
(09:52):
mid July through mid September, andit's already, you know, early June,
and we've had the same amount ofuh, you know, acres burned
up north than what they would seein an entire year. So and you
know, the long term weather patterndoes not really bring a lot of rain
to Eastern Canada in the days andweeks to come. So unfortunately, this
(10:13):
may be a situation that either staysas bad as it is or maybe even
gets a little bit worse. Yeah, we're talking with that honey of a
WMR meteorologist, and I think ifyou, if you live in New England,
you're kind of forced to become somewhatof a weather dorc right, because
they're so you know, you canexperience all four seasons sometimes in one day,
you know, not to let alonea week or a month or so.
(10:35):
But just anecdotally, you know,talking with my friends who have lived
here a long time, it suredoes seem like, you know, there's
been lots of conversation about the effectiveclimate change and what that's going to look
like as far as you know,what more wildfires. You know, when
we get storms, they're bigger,but they don't happen as often. As
a meteorologist, have you seen apattern start to emerge where things like that
(10:58):
are happening. Yeah, that's areally good question, and I think the
short answer is, yeah, therehas been very clear cut evidence that we
are seeing changes to our weather andclimate patterns here in New England. I
mean, certainly, you know,we're not immune from going from ninety degrees
like it was last week to whatfifties cold rain over the weekends. Yeah,
(11:20):
yeah, I mean it was evensnowing on top of Mount Washington yesterday.
So you know, June can bea volatile month and it is a
volatile time of year, but weare certainly seeing a correlation in the past
couple of years. Of course,the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
and other greenhouse gases that are contributingto a warming climate. And we're seeing
(11:43):
more extremes here in New England.You know, we're not We're used to
extremes. This is not something completelyout of the ordinary, but the extremes
are getting more extreme. You know, we are setting way more record high
temperatures than what we used to ensure. The obvious argument is records are meant
to be broken, but we arenow consistently setting record after record after record.
That is something that's highly unusual.We're seeing more of these flash droughts
(12:07):
in the summertime. Yeah, maybewe're not seeing as many strong storms in
the fall and winter, but thosestorms are producing stronger winds, more snowfall,
and I think that's going to bea pattern that continues as long as
the Earth continues. It's trend whenit comes to warming. Yeah, so
in European and can we you know, can we expect more unfortunately, more
(12:28):
events like you know, a wildfirein a spot you don't expect it,
which leads to, you know,leads to everybody's got to put their masks
back on that we had tucked awaylast year from COVID, but now yeah,
occasionally we're going to put them backon for the air quality. Are
we're going to continue to see eventslike this propagate? And if so,
it is going to be more likewhat we've seen in these last few weeks
wildfires? Are? Is it goingto be flooding? What do you what
(12:50):
do you think are the most likelythings we're going to have to deal with
in this region over the next let'ssay, five ten years or so.
Not that's a big question, butI mean, and who knows what's going
to happen, But what do youthink is in our future? Yeah,
and you're right, it is abig question. And I think the short
answer is we're still waiting to seeand there's still a lot more research that
needs to be done. I'll justsay this. You know, climate change
(13:15):
is not directly causing these wildfires,but things that climate change does impact our
temperatures and precipitation. When you havehot weather, when you have dry weather,
that's a perfect setup for wildfire.So if we get more heat spells,
more dry spells, yeah, that'sprobably going to correlate to more wildfires.
It's certainly something that we've been watching, and there seems to be a
(13:39):
trend in that direction that both youknow, in Canada and out west,
there is that wildfire season that isgrowing longer and is growing more intense.
Here in New England, there aresome studies that show we're going to get
more of these flash droughts in thesummertime. So there certainly could be some
local wildfire concerns as well, butthe bigger picture probably is that we are
(14:00):
going to see you more intense stormsoff of the New England coastline. And
I know it's kind of a confusingthing to think about, how can we
get more droughts but also get morestorms at the same time, and both
can be true, right, Andthat kind of goes back to the more
extremes, Right, We'll get periodsof dry weather maybe in the spring,
summer fall months, and then overthe winter maybe we'll get these longer stretches
(14:22):
of stormy weather with maybe not asmany storms, but more intense rainfall,
heavier snow, stronger winds, allthose things around the table and can coexist
at the same time. Yeah,we've we've experienced what I like to call
Florida rain at times here where it'slike it's nice, it's nice, it's
nice. It's a day luge,all right, it's over with. But
we got two and a half bagesof rain. So it's been pretty wild
(14:43):
lately. But talking about Honey ofWmure, you seem onun channel, now
you hear them on our radio stationsas well. I just want to ask
you about this as well, Matt. There's there's an unusual event in Puerto
Rico as far as the weather thefolks on that island are experiencing. He
indices this past week approaching a hundretwenty degrees and from what I understand this
this has to do with a duststorm from the sand from the Saharan Desert
(15:05):
which has made its way over towardsthe Caribbean. Is this something you've kept
your eye on as a meteorologist andwhat's happened down in Puerto Rico. So
I just saw this pop up onmy Twitter feed. I think it was
on Wednesday. So yeah, thisis really intense heat for Puerto Rico and
(15:26):
the Caribbean. You know, weatherhere in the United States and the continental
the United States moves from west toeast, typically down in Puerto Rico,
the weather pattern is more east towest, so a lot of the dust
you were talking about, yeah,it's coming off of Africa, and that's
just how the weather pattern there travels. It's completely reversed, and that's just
how the global wind pattern works.You know. Obviously, Puerto Rico is
(15:48):
not immune from you know, swampyheat, that's the way I like to
call it. You know, itnever gets intensely hot, but with the
humidity, it can feel very uncomfortable. And thankfully, the people down they
are used to it, you know, folks who live there, you know,
they're used to year round warmth andhumidity, and of course now we're
really entering that that humid, aridseason when they're getting you know, more
(16:08):
showers and thunderstorms as the summer setsin, that dust layer that you were
mentioning is actually drying out the airmass, and when you have drier air,
the air can actually get hotter.So for instance, you know,
they are used to seeing temperatures inthe summertime upper eighties, low nineties,
but you lower the humidity there justa little bit and it allows the temperature
(16:30):
to get even higher, like midto upper nineties and that's more like what
they've been seeing actual air temperature.Then you factor in that kind of Caribbean
like air masks, and that's whatmaking that's making it feel like it's one
hundred and ten one hundred and twentydegrees. So just a little bit of
dry air can be a really seriousthing for them, and for folks in
Puerto Rico, that's a big difference, you know, just a couple of
degrees, because this is heat thatthey really have not seen in many,
(16:55):
many years. Yeah, folks inthe southern part of the US and the
Caribbean. If anyone who's ever goinga flight from from Boston and let's say
Louisiana, why do you step outon the plane and you feel that that
Louisiana heat. It's like, ooh, it's a little bit different than I'm
used to. But but yeah,like you said, I mean, it's
a it's a it's a climate youused to. But if it goes it
goes haywire just a little bit.I mean, it's it sounds like a
(17:17):
nightmare. And Puerto Rico has hadsome real challenges as far as you know,
extreme weather in the past, youknow, three or four years.
Yeah, I mean, a coupleof years ago they were hit hard by
a very devastating hurricane, and Iknow the clean up there is you know,
still going on, especially in someof the poorer, more sort of
rundown communities there. Of course,you know, many of the islands were
not just Puerto Rico, many theislands were hit by by said hurricane.
(17:40):
And the other thing we talked abouttoo, when it comes to this big
warm spell recently, are the watertemperatures you know that have been slowly but
steadily warming. And you know that'sa that's an island territory there that's completely
surrounded by water, of course,so you increase the water temperature there even
a degree or two in the nextdecade, and that's going to have a
perfect found impact on their climate.Yeah, it's you get more algae,
(18:03):
you get more jellyfish. You know, if you're in the fishing industry,
suddenly your your livelihood is impacted.I guess it's a good lesson that everything
impacts everything, and we maybe shouldtry to think about the way we live,
in the way we consume and thingslike that. Right. Yeah,
you know, it's funny how tohear people now saying you know, the
weather is so extreme. You know, I never remember seeing this kind of
(18:23):
weather growing up, and this isgoing to slowly become the norm, right,
these kind of back and forth upand down weather events. You know,
I think as long as we're onthis trajectory, it's it's while I
don't I certainly am not a doomsdayor I don't think you know, humans
are going to you know, justcompletely die off and that society is going
to end. I think we doneed to take drastic steps and at the
(18:47):
very least, we're going to needto learn how to adapt to all these
different changes. And it's still inour control. You know, we have
not come to a point yet whereyou know, this changing climate that we've
been experiencing for the past few decadeshas just completely you know, gone out
of our hands. We still havethe choice to make in the next couple
of years. You know, whatcan we do to one just not make
the earth our dumpster? Right?And two how can we maybe even reverse
(19:08):
some of these impacts. Yeah,we probably shouldn't wait around too much longer,
but yeah, you're right. Still, still it's still time to get
this thing turned around. That holdingof a WNU R before we let you
go. I've as a weather dudeand you're on TV. So when you're
you know, I've done some sportsthings on TV and you always get much
more recognition for that than when you'reon the radio because people see your face.
(19:29):
Do you get like if your forecastis off by like a little bit,
if you say it's, oh,it's gonna snow three to six inches,
but then it snows like four toeight or whatever. Do people come
up to you in the grocery storeand like give you a bunch of malarkey?
Or how are people generally good toyou as a weather guy when they
sea out in public? I willsay this when they see me in person,
they are generally very respectful. Peoplehere in New Hampshire have been so
(19:56):
kind to me since since coming here, and I truly love the state.
It's been so great. I lovethe challenge that comes with forecasting New Hampshires
weather. With that said, thepeople of New Hampshire are very good at
keeping you honest and keeping you accountable, which is great because that's how you
become a better forecaster. So whileI maybe don't get that, you know,
constructive criticism in person over email oversocial media, even some voicemails we
(20:22):
get at the station. People letyou know, and I'll be the first
to admit it is not an easyplace to forecast. You know, this
is something I've been kind of watchingas a kid, and and even I
haven't been able to figure out aforecasting yet. And I think even some
of the season veterans are still learningthings, you know, week after week,
year after year as they continue theircareer. Yeah, I don't think
I get really approached in a negativeway in person, which is which is
(20:47):
good because I'm not, honestly notsure how I would react. I'm not
the type of person that enjoys confrontation, so I'd probably just end up like
apologizing, be like, oh sorry, you know, we'll get them next
time, we'll try better, becauseI just would genuinely feel bad. You
know, obviously we don't like gettingit wrong. But at the same time,
you know, mother nature is reallygood at growing in skirtballs. Yeah,
I feel like forecasting in New England'slike all Madden level. If you
(21:11):
went somewhere like Idaho, You're like, yeah, that's gonna be the same,
like it always is. Calling thewinner and warming and su what do
you want. So, it's sogood on you for for taking on the
the end boss of weather here inNew England. But that howning Wmure be
nice here to him in the commentsand if you see him in the street,
be nice to him then too.Thanks so much for joining us and
kind of giving us an explainer hereon overtime. I appreciate it. Justin.
(21:33):
This is a lot of fun.Thank you so much. Joy to
be here on overtime. Is oneof the co chairs of the Manchester True
Collaborative, one of the organizations helpingput on Manchester Pride, which starts next
week, actually starts this weekend andreally uh kay gets going in full next
week. Scott Clue here is herewith the Scott. How you doing.
(21:55):
I am doing great. Thanks forhaving me justin. Great to have you
here, and first of all toa little bit about what Manchester True Collaborative
is, what you folks do andwhat you're all about. Yeah, absolutely
so. Manchester True Collaborative is anew program through the YWCA New Hampshire.
We just set up an advisory counciland we are looking forward to hopefully becoming
our own nonprofit in the next coupleof years, but with the YWCA New
(22:18):
Hampshire's assistance, we have worked toput on this Pride festival this year.
We're also looking to do more lgbtQI plus support in Manchester throughout the year,
put on more events, offer supportprograms, youth summits, other things
related to the community, just tohelp out. We really look forward to
doing more for everybody. That's excellent. So, like like you said,
(22:41):
it's a new it's a new project, true collaborative part of the YWCA.
When da when did Manchester true collaborativekind of get going? When when did
it start up? Yeah? Wereally got started this January. We knew
that Manchester needed an organization to runwith Pride. As as some folks know,
Queen City Pride existed last year.They are no longer an organization in
(23:03):
Manchester, so we kind of steppedup and formed the Advisory Council and made
sure that we would still have atleast a Pride festival. But we're looking
forward to doing a lot more thanthat. Yeah, and it's Pride Week
that starts. We're taping this onFriday, you're gonna hear it here of
course on Saturday and Saturday Night isthe first event of Pride Week and it's
really it's a it's a whole thingwhich culminates in the Pride Festival Veterans Park
(23:26):
on June the seventeenth. So wasit whose idea was it to do like
events every week? Because if I'mnot mistaken, last year my wife and
daughter went. I wasn't able toattend. But last year it was just
a one or two day event oryeah, it was a one day event
last year the festival in arms Park. We decided this year let's move it
(23:47):
up to Elm Street. Get everybodyreally involved. You know. The big
goal for Manchester True Collaborative is toreally bring all of the local organizations into
a collaborative space, to get everybodyto support the lgbt QIA plus community.
We feel that it's very important toto bring everybody in all the local organizations
and make sure that they understand,you know, why it's important to support
(24:08):
but also to learn. Everybody needsto be able to learn, and I
think in New Hampshire, you know, we're continuing to bring lots of diversity
and new new ideas to the groupsright on. And how's the support been
from the from the business community fromthe local community. How's how's the reaction
been. It's incredible, Yeah,it's it's absolutely incredible. Honestly, I
think at this point where we're kindof fighting off people that still want to
(24:30):
sign up to to be vendors andwhatnot at the festival, but super supportive.
We're looking forward to an incredible dayon the seventeenth especially, and I
think Elm Street's just going to bepacked full of very happy people. We're
talking with Scott Cludier. He isone of the co chairs of Manchester True
Collaborative, one of the groups that'smaking Manchester Pride Week happened this coming week.
So let me ask you. Sowhen I was when I was growing
(24:52):
up, it was it was amuch different world. Uh. And just
for full disclosure, I'm a I'ma CIS gender straight dude, right,
So I come from the as kindof an outsider perspective. But when I
was in high school, New Hampshirewasn't especially a very welcoming place towards folks
in the LGBTQ plus community. Iwas in drama club and involved with a
lot of that, so I hada little more exposure to to gay folks
(25:15):
and and buy folks and trans folksat an earlier time than maybe most folks
around here did. New Hampshire hascome a long ways now. Granted it
has been a long time since Iwas in high school, so years and
years and years ago, but NewHampshire has come a long way since then.
What changes have you seen over overthe years as far as you know
how the community is treated in thisstate. Yeah, I think I think
(25:37):
we've seen, you know, hugestrides and steps forward for the community being
accepted in the state. Um,you know, we still have a long
way to go though, Like Iwas saying before, I think, you
know, we've seen a lot morediversity coming to New Hampshire, but we
definitely can can see a lot moreum over the years. We've done these
Pride festivals the last four or fiveyears with with different organizations, and we've
(26:00):
seen a huge outpouring of support andattendance. But in the same token,
we've also seen a bit of protestingand other things happening in more recent time.
You know, just across the UnitedStates, we've seen a lot of
different things happening. Over seventy fivelaws have been passed against lgbt QIA plus
folks. So unfortunately, you know, this is a time of year where
(26:22):
we want everybody to be happy,but there are quite a few folks that
are likely scared to get out thereand participate. This year, it's it
just feels a little bit more angryand fearful and protesting. So we're encouraging
everybody that to come out and havea good time. And we are,
you know, we are a securespace and a safe space for folks to
(26:42):
come and have a happy, happyday. Yeah, and and I'll kind
of put a finer point on it, like New Hampshire obviously is the home
of the first of the nation primaryof presidential candidates, specifically Round de Santis
and Mike Pence will be in thestate who have been extremely hostile towards you
know, the lgbt QA plus community, and so you know, with the
you know, with the spotlight onNew Hampshire, you know, I think
(27:04):
this is me personally again sisteonder straightto talking here, but I think it's
more important than ever to show thatNew Hampshire is a place of inclusivity and
that we have love for our ourgay and trans brothers and sisters. And
is there more of a resolve withinthe community to like say, hey,
you're not scaring us software how howdoes it is the more apprehension Talk to
(27:26):
me a little bit about that.Yeah, I mean, I think this
year we definitely feel the apprehension.I think the you know, the the
outpouring of the media kind of negativityaround these laws that are being passed and
things create sort of that fear andthe space that you know, especially young
queer folks are feeling very uncomfortable.Um, but in general, you know,
we are still out here fighting.We're we're here, we're queer,
(27:48):
We're not going anywhere, yea,And we will continue to push that,
you know. So I'm encouraging everybodyto get out there and be there.
Do not let you know, aprotester or somebody try to scare you away.
I mean, really, that's exactlywhat they want, right, they
want us to not want to doany of these things. We're going to
continue to push and celebrate and beexactly who we are excellence. Let's talk
(28:08):
a little bit about some of theevents that are going on. So as
you're hearing this tonight Saturday, Layersof Identity, a visual exploration is going
to take place of the Mosaic ArtCollective. Tell me a little bit about
that. Yeah, that's our partner. Queer Elective is putting on an art
show at the Mosaic Art Collective.So it'll be an incredible exploration of identity
(28:30):
where they have all kinds of differentartwork that is related to the lgbt QI
plus community. All Right, Junethe twelfth, which is let me put
what day is the twelfth? Isthat on Monday Day, that's Monday,
you have a Queens Cities a Dragat the Stark Brewery. I'm going to
infer that this is some sort ofdrag show at the Start Brewery and my
reading comprehensions pretty good. Tell mea little bit about that. Yeah,
(28:52):
that'll be an incredible performance. So, queens Cities a Drag is a bi
monthly drag show at Start Brewery,but this month we'll be doing a Pride
special where the four folks that arein Queen Cities a Drag Troop are also
bringing in folks from House of MarvelEntertainment, which is another drag troop in
Manchester. And so they'll be abouteight performers going on on Monday night and
(29:12):
it'll be an incredible performance of justyou know and celebration of pride. So
there are performers like Veronica of Force, Cheechee, Marvel Luke, Lere Skyler
hardly know her. There's a bunchof queens and kings that'll be doing an
amazing job. So we'd love tohave folks come out for that excellent Now
we're talking about Scott Clotier, aManchester true collaborative part of the Manchester Pride
(29:33):
Week that's going on this coming week. Youth Pride Hop is going to take
place on Tuesday at Boards and Bruis. That's an afternoon event. And trying
to figure out if I can bringmy daughter and some of our friends to
that. We gotta make the scheduleand work out. But what's what's Youth
Pride Hop all about? Yeah,I'd love to have you show up with
with our your kids. Absolutely,this is a really exciting one. I
think you know right now, queeryouth are feeling a lot of the pain
(29:57):
of you know, the media attentionand the negativity around the laws being passed.
So this Pride Hop is going tobe a sort of hop around Manchester
to over thirteen different businesses that aresafe spaces and they'll be offering discounts free
stuff for for the kids showing up. So it'll start at Boards and Bruise
with a fun pride mocktail, andthen we'll head off to a bunch of
(30:19):
different businesses around town and uh andhave a nice little hop. Yeah,
let me pauseit it for a secondbecause you mentioned career, you with feeling
kind of the uh, kind ofthe spotlight and you know it's a little
more dangerous. It's kind of atwo sided coin, I think, right
because right now it's a Again,this is just my point of view.
It seems like it's safer than everto be out as as a young person.
(30:41):
But it's also you know, there'swith with social media with the focus
on them. It's also feel it'snever been completely safe to be out as
a as a young person. Butjust from anecdotally, uh, you know,
see, you know, my daughter'sgay, just a full disclosure.
And she has friends that are trendsin the in the chorus and band and
the and the drama club over itsSpaulding High School, which has been a
(31:03):
very very welcome community. I gotto give them their props so they there
is a greater support system than ever, I think. But also with that,
you kind of it's a shared experienceof you know, these are the
dangers. Here's where I don't feelsafe. But do you think you feel
it's more of a positive than anegative at this point for queer youth or
is it just kind of is ittenuous right now? I definitely think it's
(31:25):
a bit tenuous. I think,you know, queer youth are in that
space where, yes, they areabsolutely accepted in the spaces that they're accepted,
they are fully accepted, right andthere there is a lot of folks
that you know, you know,we'll say, yeah, hey, I'm
an ally, I've got a gayfamily member, and I'm all for it.
But I think right now is thetime to really step up and notice,
like, look, seventy five lawshave been passed this year alone,
(31:47):
right to prevent queer folks from beingable to get medical care, to prevent
them from even doing drag shows insome states, right, I mean,
this is just dressing up in acostume and doing a performance. Apparently is
is illegal, uh, you knowin a couple of states. So it's
a bit shocking. And I think, you know, social media, like
you said, brings brings a wholeother element into it, and young folks
(32:08):
just you know, tend to seethe negative that's been brought up in that
that space. So UM, I'llcontinue to you know, work to encourage
it with the whole team at ManchesterTrue to to get you know, youth
feeling like they have space. Butyou know, we've seen it take effect
right here in Manchester. We werecently lost a member of the trans youth
(32:30):
community here in Manchester UM and andit's it's a very very sad moment when
somebody feels as though they can't youknow, fully be themselves, but also
they don't know where they can goget help um or where they can go
to just feel accepted. And that'sthat's what is so important about all of
this is really coming out and asan ally stepping up and saying, hey,
(32:52):
I see what's going on and thisis unacceptable. We have to be
able to step up because we canonly do so much. Those of us
in the community are are continue tofight, but we need everybody to step
up and do that. Right.It's one thing to say you're about it,
it's another thing to be about it. And allies gotta gotta be about
it, no more than they saythey're great. You put a rainbow thing
on your Twitter avatar, that's great. You gotta get out in the streets
(33:14):
and sometimes it support things like likePride Weekend some other direct actions. So
that's just me on my soapbox,my beat. I love it. So
we also have a let's say,Pride karaokes at the Stark Brewer. I'm
so if I go there day,do I have to just sing songs about
Pride? Or can I just singwhatever I want? You can sing whatever
you want. We are just makingsure that everybody feels as though they can
(33:35):
come and it's an open space tohave a good time, all right,
because I because you know, Ihave a certain karaoke repertoire. It's like
three songs, and not that theydon't have a whole lot to do with
Pride, because it's just here's,by the way, here's the karaoke secret.
I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you thisguy. You might know this already,
but here's my karaoke sacret. Youpick a song everybody knows, all
right, They sing along here themselvesand think you were great. That's the
(33:58):
charaoke secret. That is absolutely mysecret as well. Don't have a few
beers for us, especially during allergyseasons. You know, I don't want
to be out there singing any singingany songs with the stuff. He knows.
Fems and Them's night at the BreezewayPub, which is not about a
stone's throw from the radio station hereon June fifteenth. What's that all about?
Yeah, Fems and thems. Thisis the first time we host a
night call Fems and Them's and we'resuper excited. It's for folks that identify
(34:22):
as them, non binary or femyou know, our our lesbian friends.
Really it's an open night for everybodyto come and have a great time where
you have a couple of comedians performing, There'll be music, dancing, food,
it'll just again be a great time. But it's really a big accepting
space for those that don't necessarily fitinto some of the typical g part of
(34:43):
the LGBT community. You know,we want to really put a focus on
some of our non binary friends andour lesbian friends right on January January,
June sixteenth, we have the flag. I don't even want to think about
winner right now. June sixteenth,flag raising at City Hall. That seems
like a big deal that you knowa city is willing to raise the Pride
flag like that make it an efficientIt's one thing if you know businesses haven't
(35:06):
hanging in the windows or folks too. It's another thing that the city,
you know, puts their government nameon it, so to speak, and
says, hey, we're doing this, this is important to us. Absolutely.
Yeah. And may Or Joyce Craig, she's been just an incredible advocate
for the community in the last fouror five years, and this will be
the fifth year. I believe thatwe've raised the flag and she'll she'll do
a proclamation. But the exciting partof the flag raising this year is we've
(35:28):
actually got some career youth from ManchesterWest High School coming to raise the flag
for us. So I'm super excitedto really give them the spotlight because I
think that they need that spotlight.But yeah, twelve pm on Friday,
the day before Pride, we willraise that Pride flag at City Hall and
then Veterans Park on Saturday will becovered in Pride flags and can't wait.
That's fantastic. And then Saturday nightdrag Roulette at the Breezeway Pub, which
(35:51):
I've actually attended before. This ispre COVID when I was still going places.
It's exactly what it sounds like.There's a big wheel, you spin
it and then and I think theperformer that you spend comes up and they
do their thing. Uh, it'sa it's a good time. But let
me ask you this because I've assomeone who's an ally, I've always felt
like I want to support spaces likethe Breezeway Pop. I want to spend
(36:13):
my money there. I don't wantto show that I'm all about it.
But also I feel like sometimes like, well, this place really isn't for
me, and I'm kind of like, am I making people feel uncomfortable by
being here? What? What's what'syour? And you know, the community
is not a monolitht so I'm sureeverybody has our an opinions, But well,
how do you feel about things likethat? You know, I think
there's mixed reviews. I think youknow, coming into a queer space,
um and accepting you know, what'shappening there is definitely a big part about
(36:37):
being an ally. I would say, you know, come into the space
and know that you're there as anally and not necessarily there to just you
know, do your own thing andparty, I think right will kind of
you know, get into some ofthose spaces there. There's some funny situations
we typically run into. You know, lots of bachelorette parties like to go
to a drag show, right,which is fun. But when an event
is focused on pride, you reallywant to get in there and let the
(37:00):
queer folks be the focus of thatevent. So definitely come out. We
need the allies. It's so importantto have them. But you know,
no, your space, No,when you get in there that it's not
necessarily all about you. It's nota you know, a heteronormative kind of
thing. Have a good time inthere, but you know, yeah,
no your space. It's like theRock used to say, no your role
and shut your mouth exactly. That'sit's a great way to put it.
(37:23):
It's not a bad life motto either. Sometimes every time, but sometimes.
And then we have the APTS partyon Sunday the seventeenth. Make sure that's
Saturday the seventeenth. Yeah, whenmy daughter graduating this week and all the
other stuff that's going on. Ihave, I'm not that smart to begin
with. I don't know what dayswhy, but the Pride after Party Saturday
the seventeenth at eight pm, andI'm guessing that's just a whoa, we
(37:45):
did it. That is going tobe a woo, we did it.
This is the first time we'll hostedat Jewel Nightclub. Super excited. It
is going to be an incredible show. We have DJ Andreas Thomas coming up.
She currently performs in Boston local barslike d Bar in Legacy, but
she used to DJ at three onethree and Paradigm which was an old gay
(38:05):
bar in Manchester which many folks thatare my age now I'm aging myself,
but many folks used to go toover I would say now over ten years
ago. But I'm We're super excitedto bring her back up here and get
the community thrilled to have her again. And of course the main event is
June seventeenth, the Pride Festival atVeterans Park one pm to seven pm in
(38:27):
Manchester. A lot of communities thatare doing their own Pride extravaganzas and uh
Scott I found, like I said, back of the day, used to
be only the big cities did Prideof festivals like but you know New York,
Boston, you know, Philadelphia.It had to be like like a
major city, yss city. Nownow places you know, Rochester, rilev
does one they do in August,but still that you know, the cops
(38:49):
come out in rainbow police things,which is it's is stunning but happy transformation
but pride of It's kind of takeplace almost everywhere at this point, right,
Yeah, absolutely anywhere that you knowthe groups can get together and put
on a great, great day oreven a small event is encouraged, you
know, and in around New Hampshire. I'm happy to see that a lot
of even small cities are doing it. Like you said, Rochester, that's
(39:12):
awesome. Even doing it in Augustis great. Right on, Scott Clintter,
you're here from Manchester True Collaborative.How can folks find out more about
your organization? How can they helpout? And what else do you think
you have coming down the pipeline orif nothing's stone? Yeah, what what
things are you thinking about doing inthe future? Yeah, absolutely so.
If folks want to get involved,they can visit our website Manchester True dot
(39:35):
org. You can follow us onsocial media Manchester True on most socials Instagram,
Facebook, and TikTok, I believeis all of our great socials now.
But yeah, if you want toget involved, you can also volunteer
on our website. There's a littlevolunteer sign up form for the Day of
Pride and the week of Pride Festival. And then, you know, as
far as the future, we arelooking to collaborate more with folks in New
(39:55):
Hampshire. We're hopeful that we'll beable to really folks US some time on
youth, looking to host potentially ayouth summit for local and or all New
Hampshire Gay Straight alliances or youth organizationsat schools, and then and so much
more to come. I you know, in my future, I'd love to
see an LGBT center in Manchester.I definitely love to have a place that
(40:20):
is actually a true safe space thatpeople can go and free to use.
But other than that, we wantto offer more support services and host a
bunch more events. You know,Pride Month is not the only time that
we need to do things for thelgbtq a US community. So we are
hopeful that we will continue on andyou become a nonprofit as I said before,
and we'll have a lot more comingso keep your ears open right on.
(40:43):
Yeah, remember when your favorite brandtakes down the rainbow logo on their
social media site. The struggle continues, so you got to stay vigilant and
help the folks we care about andthe folks we don't even know we care
about yet that we haven't met outthere the community. Scott, thanks so
much for coming in, and Ihope you'll stop buying the future in let
us know what's going on with ManchesterTrue Collaborative. Thank you so much,
Dustin, appreciate it. Welcome backto it all over time thanks to my
(41:08):
guest today on today's episode, VanHoning of Wire also Scott Cloutier, Manchester's
True Collaborative. Make sure you checkout the Pride events going on Manchester or
wherever your city or town is holdinga pride event. I wanted to tell
this quick story before before we gorun out of a show because by Donald
and I were listening to O'sherry byby Steve Perry as one does the other
(41:30):
day on the eighties station, andit reminded me of the best baseball heckle
I ever had, which happened.I remember exactly what had happened. It
was opening dave O seven at FenwayPark. My boy Brian and I were
sitting right across from the visitor's bullpen. You know Fenway, there's in the
bleachers, there's like the visitor's bullpen, then an aisle in their seats.
We were like right on the aisle, so we were right here the Mariner's
(41:52):
bullpen. They're playing the Mariners thatday, and as I recalled, the
Mariners headn't played in like six daysbecause they got snowdown in Cleveland and somewhere
else. And it was like thirtytwo degrees that day. Anyway, it
was it was it was not agreat day to be at the ballpark.
But the Mariners are getting killed.It was like it was something like thirteen
to two or something outrageous like that. I could look up the actual score,
but who's good time for that?And George Cheryl started warming up in
(42:14):
the bullpen and he's about to comein to just eat sumittings in a blowout
game. And my friend Brian looksover and sees, you know, Cheryl
warming up. We've been heckling everybodywarming up. He goes, Cheryl,
that's my mom's name, and everybodykind of started to chuckle in in our
section, and George chryl and waskrd of gave a little chuckle. But
then I had to one up myboy Brian, and I start going,
(42:37):
oh Cheryl, and the whole likethe whole like two rows near us picked
up the song of course they're likeold on hod and George Cheryl had to
step off the mound because he waslaughing, and he kind of looked back
and gave the nod a little likea half cap tip. And that was
(43:00):
easily the best baseball heckle I everhad, except for when I was yelling
at Jose Gian the Washington Nationals andvery very chopped up Spanish that he stunks
or stunk or stinks or wasn't anygood. But but then George Cheryl,
if you're out there, I don'tknow what George Cheryll is up to these
days, but another personal I justhad to get that heckle in. I
(43:22):
think he appreciated it, and Ihope you appreciated that, because I appreciate
you. So make sure you knowcheck out the podcast if you tuned in
halfway through the show on your favoritepodcast app, whether it's the iHeartRadio app,
which is what my bosses prefer youlisten on or iTunes, just Spotify
or all that. Just look forovertime with Justin McConnon. Give us a
five star review because that helps peoplefind it. I guess and all that
(43:44):
sort of stuff, and uh yeah, make sure you tuned in every week.
Of course, you can take theshow wherever you go with that iHeartRadio
app. We will see you nextweek again thanks to Matt Honick and Scott
Clary. And remember boys and girls, Hippies are bad people pretending to be
good. Punks are good people pretendingto be bad. See you next week.
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