Hi, I'm Chanel, one of the journalists at Meng's Radio. Welcome to the latest edition of Meng's Radio Newscast. My name is Kai Verretto, I use they/them pronouns and I, my title, I guess I'm a bit of a jack-of-all-trades is my title, but I work at Kenston Arts, predominantly, and the U-Service. So I have a little bit of everything, I suppose, but yeah, that's kind of me. I'm here today because I wanted to do a bit more of a, I suppose, a bit of a promo of an event that I'm organizing. It's completely independent, so the event that I'm doing is Queer Arts and Market and Workshop for Queer History Month. So it was originally in February, but unfortunately, because there wasn't much traction at the time, I think it's just kind of busy and yeah, it just didn't get as much momentum as it has now, which is brilliant. So yeah, so it's a little bit round two, basically. Tell me about these workshops to date time and what is it about and what can people that will attend, what can they expect to, is it an educational learning kind of thing, is it bouncing ideas off one or off each other kind of thing, exactly what is it? So the workshop is based off a resource called Capturing LGBT History from the Proud Trust Charity, which is predominantly based in the UK. It's a resource that's used mostly with younger people, however, it's for all age groups. I put a comprehension advice there for ages of 11 and up, just because, you know, if I talk about language or history, you know, do you understand what that means to like a six-year-old, they're going to be like, what? So yeah, it's just comprehension advice. Obviously, they can be there if they want to, but yeah, it's basically capturing LGBT history, predominantly in the UK, and I thought I put a little spin on it myself, and involve Mank's history as well, so LGBT Mank's history, because unfortunately it's not talked about much. We've only had, I think it was the curiosity cabinet in the Mank's Museum for a snapshot that captured predominantly, I suppose, the modernish kind of history of the Isle of Man, LGBT Isle of Man, that is, so from Alan Shay to criminalise and homosexuality in 1882, right up to modern day, you know, so that was fantastic, absolutely, but that was just the beginning of it, so I wanted to kind of reintroduce that again and talk about it a bit more, so this workshop's got a little slither of that involved as well, it's only an hour, and it's going on during the market installs, so it, you know, I'm going to see it, I'm going to test it out and see what people think of it, you know, what the ambience is like, what the environment's like, etc, etc, because it's the first time I've ever done this, so a bit nervous, but I'm excited at the same time, because it's mostly focused on, yeah, a bit of education and learning, obviously, but also that discussion as well, so there's activities to be done, because obviously it's for early age groups and anybody who's got idle hands, you know, they can do something if they want to, but if they just want to sit back and listen, that's fine, I'm not going to be there, like, dictating them to do something, but yeah, I mostly just want it to be like a sort of conversation, a sort of, oh, that's an interesting, you know, walking away there with like, I didn't know that, or wow, I want to find out more, do you know what I mean, and so that's my goal, really, is to have discussions to, yeah, inspire, I suppose, and yeah, just go from there feedback as well. I love that, and I love that you spoke about the LGBT, the LGBT makes history as well, because a lot of the times when you hear LGBTQIA+, a lot of people talk about, you know, we need to go forward, we need to go forward in time, and you know, things like that, but no one takes it back to the history and the starting route, so that's quite interesting. Can you tell me a little bit more about that, or maybe something that maybe perhaps we didn't know, from the history side about the island? So I guess it was quite, there's quite a different bits and chunks within the island, and some of it because of the nature of the Isle of Man, and it being a small community, some of it's a bit makes whispers as well, so you don't know how factual some bits are, but you know, we know that there has been a drag scene on the Isle of Man, mostly prominently, modernly speaking, but it's always been here, but it's just not really been known about very much, or people haven't known who there is, you know, and you've got Vida Lefias, who's been on the island for a very long time, during drag, and even before her as well, there was a drag queen, I can't quite recall her name right now, but yes, she was very, very brief again, but unfortunately, you know, like any hobby as well, do you know what I mean, you sometimes move on from it, or they might have moved across, because as we know, back in the day, it wasn't being homosexual, let alone drag, or being trans, or, you know, who, God forbid, mention it, you know what I mean, let alone walking and talking it, you know, it's quite hard. So I can only imagine, and then there's other elements as well, where for a lot of people in high schools, it wasn't talked about, so there's a lot of people who were the children then, who are the adults now, that are trying to make sure that everybody is included in topics of conversation, that are relevant to them, so they're not feeling isolated or anything now, which is really, really good, but honestly, a lot of the history that I'll be talking about will be mostly like, like, 2000 onwards, so it doesn't seem like a lot of history, but I think with a lot more people there, with different conversations and backgrounds, we'll probably learn a lot more as well, I'm just trying to recall a couple of things, but that does not come into me at the moment. No, that's fine. Yeah, there is quite a bit of key moments, for example, like gay men are giving blood only last year, so that's like official, that's been, you know, passed, and actual marriage equality was only, I think it was 2015, 2016, I was able to check that, but, you know, so people on the island, if they want to marry, they've only been able to marry for like eight years, so, and that's only on the island by an eyes, but yeah, so there's like little bit details like that, so like a lot of people that won't be like, oh my god, it's massive history or something like that, but for people who have lived here all their lives, that's huge, like to me, you know, when I was in 2015, I just started college, you know, I just started figuring out my sexuality and gender identity and stuff like that, like, I didn't think it was possible for me to be able to get married on the island, for me, in my life, I was thinking now I have to go across to England, but do you know what I mean, so that to me and people like me, that was quite big, do you know what I mean, and anybody who was older than me as well would definitely know that, but yeah, so it's going to be lots of different conversations and I think it's going to be interesting and exciting at the end of the day. I like that she said that, you know, it's only dating back to maybe the early 2000s, but I mean, if you look back then, and all of the things that you've mentioned, there's so much that's happened over the years. How does it reflect on the island? Are we moving forward? Is the island improving? I, personally, speaking obviously, I think it's definitely moving forward, I think it's definitely a lot more progressive in some parts of the world, massively so compared to others, you know, we do have it a lot better than others. I do think that we are more in a, I don't know what, there is probably a word for this, but instead of, you know, having picket signs and protesting and stuff, it's a lot more behind the scenes sort of stuff, it's kind of correcting the things that kind of slipped through the net, like the men being able to give blood, for example, you know, that's, personally, I think just something that can't be collected, you know, I don't think it's intentional homophobia or anything like that, or it could be, but at the end of the day, you know, it's changed now, which is great, it's a bit late, but it's better late than never, as I suppose, but I do think the island man is doing incredibly well with getting with the times, and especially, personally speaking, from the past five years, there's been a massive increase in progressiveness across the board, and, you know, for a lot of people, myself included, that can be a bit of a gel, you know, nobody deals with change very well, so it's understandable, but, you know, it's great and it's a long time common as well, you know, especially as a queer individual on the island man, you know, been born and bred here, with massive change, so it's been brilliant. Okay, you can tell me if you want to answer this, so you spoke about progressiveness, what about acceptance? I would say that there's a lot more acceptance, but it does definitely, it's, yeah, it's kind of a tricky one, because if you go into your local pub where all your locals are and everybody knows each other, and you've never been into that pub before, everybody is gonna think you're weird, but it's kind of a hard one, because everybody's experiences are different, depends who you are, and it depends how you present yourself, it depends how you, you know, there's a lot of contributing factors, and I think, excuse me, there is generally a lot better acceptance, but it does depend on where you are on the island, I suppose Douglas is a lot more progressive and a lot more accepting, however you go to places south of the island, or the very north of the island, you know, you get very mixed opinions, and especially in the west as well, so it just depends, it really does. Personally speaking, I think my sexuality is a lot more accepted than my gender identity, but that's, that's a whole of this object, but yeah. So the workshop, it's not, it's open to everyone, it's not to a specific target audience or anything like that. No, no, not at all. I've tried to tailor it towards anybody, and, you know, we'll start off with the bare bones basics of, you know, do you know what LGBT stands for? Not plus, not getting into that, do you know what that stands for first? So we're all talking from the same page, you know, there's no misconceptions or misunderstandings, and even if it is, you know, talking the obvious to anybody, you know, I don't mean it in like a condescending way or anything like that, and I will say that at the event as well and the workshop, sorry, that, you know, if there's anything that somebody doesn't understand, that's what this is here for, you know, to talk about it and discuss it and stuff like that. And then from going forward, it'll be about different parts of history and things that have happened, and we would be discussing photojournalism a little bit as well, and the impact of that has happened, haven't had on, had on not only the LGBT community itself, but in history itself as well. So you know, the earliest dated sort of photojournalism, you know, fashion, you know, flash kind of camera where you have to stand still for like 10 seconds, 10 minutes rather, you know, you know, how impactful is that had on people as well? And, you know, so it'd be lots of different discussions there. But again, that's why I made the recommendations as 11 or not, because, you know, I'd say, well, do you know what photo is? And do you know what journalism is? For anybody in the years, six and all, they're probably going to know what that means, but, you know, that sorry, year six is what I meant by that, not six year old. Leading up to the event, how is, how's the reaction being, how's, I mean, in terms of maybe people that would have seen the posters or that have probably reached out and said, oh, I see that you're having this and I can't wait to attend, how's the, how's the lead up being? Um, it's been mixed. So for the actual stores and markets, we've got lots of people involved, we've got, I think it's about 16th, no, sorry, 17 confirmed. I actually had a message of the day from a store owner who was eager to get involved, which was really lovely. So we've got 17 confirmed stores that are going to be there on the day. So think of it, it's like a Christmas market, but with a bit more rainbow. So it's going to be lots of different things there, you know, for all different age groups, there'll be stalls like mischief and there'll be stalls like fancy crabs and yeah, there's loads, honestly there's loads and all kinds of different things as well. So there's going to be artwork as well as bits and bobs as well and there'll be a chance for people to meet other people as well. So they're going to hopefully be posting this as well and the momentum's going to be there, but for so far it's been very positive but it has been mixed as well because obviously not everybody quite understands what this is about and they only just seem to read that sort of surface bit or they don't, which is a shame, but yeah, so far people have been very eager to attend and very enthusiastic and those that aren't, probably aren't going to show, which is fine. You know, they're very welcome too if they change their minds, but you know, yeah. Is it the first queer artisan market? It's funny enough, no, this is the third time one's been on the Isle of Man, so I think I believe the first one was held at Kenston Arts in the dance studio, Peter Schumann and Jenny Smith organized it and they did a really good one and it was actually what inspired me to do it and my other organizer is Jenny Smith as well, which couldn't be here today unfortunately. But yeah, so they first did it with all the stalls, mostly artists at the time because that's who they could get hold of, you know, community being small, etc, etc, and they got makes, makes museum, so makes heritage involved as well and that's what brought along the queer cabinet of curiosity, curiosity, there we go. I think from my side I've got everything I need, is there anything you'd like to add or you'd like to say, anything you'd like to discuss that I perhaps didn't? Yeah, so after this event, funny enough, in the same place, for a three-pound entry, there is Mack's Punks for Pride, so there's a little bit of a louder session, shall we say, in the evening from seven o'clock onwards, so yeah, that's happening on the same day. We weren't too sure if that was going to happen or not, so that's why it's been a little bit late in the publicising and stuff like that, but we finally got it together, but yeah, Jenny has mostly taken hold of that and she's busy organising that and getting the bands together and stuff, so yeah, there's a mix of music, it's a bit of what's it called, Scar Punk and a bit of heavier punk as well and what's called queer punk as well, so it's got a little bit of element of everything there, but yeah, punk festival, that was last weekend and that was very good, but yeah, I think that's everything from me, but yeah, I just hope that people would like to have a nose, even it is free entry, suggested donation is £1, but you don't have to, and yeah, just have a nose, see what you think and yeah, pass it on to your friends and family. Perfect, but the workshop itself is there is a charge and the workshop. Yes, there is a charge and a workshop, but it's £10, and it's just going towards future events like this and it's not going into anybody's pocket or anything like that because we want to keep these things going because unfortunately there just isn't anything going on at the moment and something that I'm passionate about is the history and education side of the LGBT stuff and it's all good having a Pride party and stuff like that, but I think sometimes it's nice to know the why a little bit and also helping other people understand a bit more as well because not everybody's queer. You know, perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radio Newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manx Radio podcasts at your favourite podcast provider, so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. You
