Latest / Wicked Radio with Bill Adams / 9-25: Is The Massachusetts Lesbian Bar Mask Dispute The Story Of The Year? (Yes)

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9-25: Is The Massachusetts Lesbian Bar Mask Dispute The Story Of The Year? (Yes) · Wicked Radio with Bill Adams

0:04
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Yesterday, I think even Wednesday, I
0:08
Speaker 1: got on here and I promised you, okay, I'm not
0:10
Speaker 1: going to talk about any more crazy, insane, loony Massachusetts stories.
0:14
Speaker 1: You're going to start to think I'm some sort of
0:16
Speaker 1: a Massachusetts-based podcast. I'm really not. I'm just from, I
0:19
Speaker 1: grew up there. That's the only reason why. And you're
0:21
Speaker 1: going to think it's too super focused. Look, it's not
0:24
Speaker 1: my fault. And it's Friday and we needed something fun
0:26
Speaker 1: to talk about to head us into the weekend. Or
0:28
Speaker 1: if you're watching or listening to this later on, lighten
0:30
Speaker 1: things up a little bit. You know, that's not politics.
0:34
Speaker 1: at least not on the surface anyway, but it's not
0:37
Speaker 1: my fault. My job is to get on here and
0:40
Speaker 1: find the most insane stories so we can ask questions
0:43
Speaker 1: about it and mock it and talk about it and
0:45
Speaker 1: try to insert some common sense. I call it wicked
0:48
Speaker 1: wisdom to guide us through these insane times. Well, my friends,
0:52
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but yes, we have another Massachusetts-based story to
0:55
Speaker 1: talk about. It's been going on all week long, but
0:57
Speaker 1: there's an update on the story. But we need to
0:59
Speaker 1: talk about this, and I waited until today, until Friday,
1:01
Speaker 1: to bring it to you. I can't help it. Yes,
1:04
Speaker 1: it's based in Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts, but this possibly, I
1:08
Speaker 1: mean this. I'm convinced so far it's the story of
1:12
Speaker 1: the year. Most other people are too. Everyone is talking
1:14
Speaker 1: about it. National news media, everybody. I mean this and
1:18
Speaker 1: I'm serious. This may be the story of the century
1:21
Speaker 1: so far in our new century, 26 years in. And
1:25
Speaker 1: this is the crux of it. A Western Massachusetts lesbian
1:29
Speaker 1: bar is embroiled in a mask dispute. after instituting a
1:34
Speaker 1: policy where they would no longer require masks, N95 masks,
1:39
Speaker 1: remember those? I'd like to remind you guys, this is
1:43
Speaker 1: the year 2026. But that's not the only story. It
1:47
Speaker 1: also involves the media outlet that broke the story, the insane,
1:52
Speaker 1: crazy backlash that the bar is getting for simply instituting
1:56
Speaker 1: this policy and the reactions worldwide of people looking at
2:00
Speaker 1: this and looking at the lunacy of this. makes it,
2:02
Speaker 1: I think, the story of the century. So I think
2:05
Speaker 1: we already know our answer. Yeah, this is the story
2:07
Speaker 1: of the year, at least. We'll get into it. And
2:10
Speaker 1: an update on the actual media outlet that broke the story,
2:13
Speaker 1: that said they broke the story. It's got it all.
2:16
Speaker 1: We'll get to it. Welcome to Friday, by the way.
2:17
Speaker 1: Told you we were going to lighten it up a
2:18
Speaker 1: little bit, but it's incredible. Wicked Radio livestream, 8 a.m.-ish,
2:22
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, Eastern Time, on X and YouTube and Facebook.
2:25
Speaker 1: And the replay's always on there, on your time in
2:27
Speaker 1: the audio podcast, uploaded shortly after the livestream. Let me
2:31
Speaker 1: just get into it, and I'll describe the details as
2:33
Speaker 1: best I possibly can with a straight face, and then
2:36
Speaker 1: we'll get into the actual description from the reporter that
2:40
Speaker 1: broke the story for, of all places, the Boston Globe.
2:44
Speaker 1: This is what we have here. Greenfield, Massachusetts, a quaint
2:48
Speaker 1: western Massachusetts town, has a lesbian bar, and it's causing
2:54
Speaker 1: outrage now in the woke era. What caused the outrage?
2:58
Speaker 1: As I said in the intro, if you're just joining
3:00
Speaker 1: me now, They eased their mask-wearing mandates. This is what
3:05
Speaker 1: caused the controversy.
3:08
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:09
Speaker 1: Again, a reminder, this is 2026, and this has still
3:13
Speaker 1: been going on. They require customers to wear masks previously.
3:18
Speaker 1: Not only that, they had a requirement for N95 masks.
3:21
Speaker 1: They just opened recently a couple of years ago. It's
3:25
Speaker 1: struggling financially. The owner decided to make one night a week...
3:30
Speaker 1: mask optional. So this isn't even, they're saying we made
3:33
Speaker 1: a mistake with masks. We're insane. COVID's over. That was
3:37
Speaker 1: a bad mistake anyway. All they wanted to do was
3:40
Speaker 1: have one night a week. You don't have to wear
3:42
Speaker 1: not only a mask, an N95 medical mask. If you
3:46
Speaker 1: go back to COVID and you remember that. The unhinged
3:49
Speaker 1: angry customers raged against them so incredibly badly that that
3:55
Speaker 1: has actually gotten the story to go viral. But we
3:57
Speaker 1: got to go now to, let me just go right
3:59
Speaker 1: to a YouTube video of the Boston Globe reporter that
4:03
Speaker 1: wrote the story. And I've got to give you a
4:06
Speaker 1: little preface here and say something about the Boston Globe
4:09
Speaker 1: because they've become part of the story now. This is,
4:13
Speaker 1: by the way, they did a follow-up story. This is
4:14
Speaker 1: the biggest thing they've ever done. It literally, they talked
4:17
Speaker 1: about the numbers that this story has gotten for downloads, shares, views.
4:23
Speaker 1: They have a paywall to get into the Boston Globe,
4:25
Speaker 1: which is insane these days. That's why it's failing so
4:27
Speaker 1: badly besides the, you know, bad journalism that they do.
4:31
Speaker 1: This is the biggest story, most popular story they've ever published, ever.
4:36
Speaker 1: So the first thing, another reason why this may make
4:39
Speaker 1: it the story of the century is this, and I
4:41
Speaker 1: mean this, truly, I'm not exaggerating. This isn't hyperbole. This
4:44
Speaker 1: may change journalism. It may. They've realized that all the
4:48
Speaker 1: stuff they've been doing before and all the plagiaristic, we'll
4:51
Speaker 1: get into that in a second, divisive political writing that
4:55
Speaker 1: they've done for years, them and others are famous for it.
4:59
Speaker 1: That may change because they finally realized what works. Insane
5:02
Speaker 1: stories like this. Anyway, we'll break it down into pieces.
5:04
Speaker 1: Here's the Boston Globe reporter who actually got this story
5:07
Speaker 1: out to the world. Here she is describing it. Of
5:09
Speaker 1: the Last Ditch Bar in Western Massachusetts.
5:12
Speaker 3: At a lesbian bar in Western Massachusetts this past month.
5:14
Speaker 3: The reason? A change to its mask policy. Last Ditch
5:17
Speaker 3: Bar in Greenfield required everyone to wear KN95 masks. But
5:21
Speaker 3: when the owners decided to make masks optional for just
5:24
Speaker 3: one night a week, the backlash was immediate.
5:27
Speaker 1: Now, hold on. I'm just going to pause again because
5:28
Speaker 1: a lot of you just joined on. Again, this is
5:31
Speaker 1: the theme of the entire thing. It's 2026. It's like
5:36
Speaker 1: they were living in a past time.
5:38
Speaker 2: Anyway, here you go.
5:39
Speaker 3: Comments flooded the bar's social media, with some people calling
5:42
Speaker 3: for a boycott and others even threatening violence. Last Ditch
5:45
Speaker 3: opened last year with a mission of creating an inclusive
5:48
Speaker 3: space for the queer community. Part of that mission? Requiring
5:52
Speaker 3: everyone to wear a KN95 mask.
5:53
Speaker 1: But you already described there the angry comments. I mean, vitriolic... violent,
5:59
Speaker 1: threatening comments they've gotten. But the whole idea of the
6:02
Speaker 1: bar owner, what she was trying to do was create
6:04
Speaker 1: an inclusive, safe space community. Remember what we always said
6:07
Speaker 1: about the woke mob? Yeah, the loving woke mob. Don't ever,
6:11
Speaker 1: you can't ever, ever please them.
6:14
Speaker 3: To protect immunocompromised patrons. But the bar was struggling financially.
6:19
Speaker 3: The owners were falling behind on bills and couldn't afford
6:22
Speaker 3: to pay themselves or their staff. So they decided to
6:24
Speaker 3: try something different. They announced that Saturday nights would become
6:27
Speaker 3: mask optional. The announcement on Instagram received more than 400 comments.
6:32
Speaker 3: Critics accused the bar of abandoning immunocompromised and disabled people
6:35
Speaker 3: who had relied on the space as a safe place
6:37
Speaker 3: to socialize. The bar actually apologized, but that only sparked
6:41
Speaker 3: more criticism. The owners held a community meeting to try
6:44
Speaker 3: to work through the conflict, but that quickly devolved into
6:48
Speaker 3: acrimony and accusations of ableism. And when the Globe visited
6:51
Speaker 3: the bar recently on a mask optional night, there was
6:54
Speaker 3: still only a handful of patrons. Now, Last Ditch is
6:57
Speaker 3: facing a difficult question. How do you keep a community
6:59
Speaker 3: space accessible to the people who need it the most?
7:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, OK. She wraps up the story and asks for
7:04
Speaker 1: more clicks on the Boston Globe site. More on the
7:06
Speaker 1: Boston Globe here in just a second. But there you go.
7:08
Speaker 1: You have it all there. Again, 2026 mask mandate. One
7:12
Speaker 1: night a week. One night. And so they put it
7:15
Speaker 1: on an Instagram post and they got railed on. Now,
7:17
Speaker 1: here's the big lesson here, too, which is what everybody's
7:19
Speaker 1: waking up to finally. Because of this story, you don't ever, ever, ever,
7:25
Speaker 1: ever apologize to the woke mob. Because it's never, ever, ever,
7:29
Speaker 1: ever enough.
7:30
Speaker 2: Ever.
7:31
Speaker 1: That only opens up the door and you show weakness
7:33
Speaker 1: and they jump on you like a pack of wolves.
7:36
Speaker 1: That's all they're going to do. They're hyenas. They're going
7:38
Speaker 1: to get you and kill you. And the owners, the
7:40
Speaker 1: poor owners of this bar are understanding this exactly now. Now,
7:44
Speaker 1: she talked about some of the angry comments, and she
7:46
Speaker 1: didn't really go into it. I guess she didn't want to, like,
7:48
Speaker 1: you know, exacerbate those or inflame those anymore. Let's talk
7:52
Speaker 1: about this, about some of the comments they got at
7:54
Speaker 1: the community meeting and also in the original Instagram post
7:57
Speaker 1: where they said, just one night a week, we had
8:00
Speaker 1: a mask mandate. We're going to drop it. Here's the original.
8:05
Speaker 1: Here's what they tried to do, and they tried to
8:06
Speaker 1: be nice about it. This is the original Instagram post.
8:08
Speaker 1: It's with love that we inform our immunocompromised disabled divas.
8:13
Speaker 2: Oh, boy.
8:14
Speaker 1: We'll be opening Saturday nights as mask optional. That's what
8:17
Speaker 1: The Last Ditch wrote. Here's the response. Remember what he
8:20
Speaker 1: said about never appeasing the woke mob? Not so loving
8:24
Speaker 1: and caring, are they? Just say you're being complicit in
8:28
Speaker 1: a mass disabling event and get it over with. They
8:33
Speaker 1: get worse than this, by the way. People like you
8:35
Speaker 1: kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure
8:38
Speaker 1: and convenience.
8:40
Speaker 2: Okay.
8:41
Speaker 1: Here's the beauty that's getting the attention. This actually should
8:44
Speaker 1: get a call or a knock on the door from
8:45
Speaker 1: the FBI. I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing
8:49
Speaker 1: my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to
8:55
Speaker 1: scrape extra revenue from ableists. Here's another one. It's not
9:03
Speaker 1: an acceptable post. writes one user, it indicates a lack
9:07
Speaker 1: of care or interest in disability intersectionality. So you know
9:13
Speaker 1: where they're going with that. You know what they do.
9:16
Speaker 1: So that's the first lesson there. I got to talk
9:20
Speaker 1: about the Boston Globe here for a second, too, because
9:22
Speaker 1: here's the update on the story. They actually kind of
9:23
Speaker 1: held off on this for Friday to talk about it
9:25
Speaker 1: because we've had so many Massachusetts-based stories. The Boston Globe,
9:29
Speaker 1: I can tell you from growing up there and just
9:30
Speaker 1: being in media my whole life, too, in radio and
9:34
Speaker 1: kind of like... scrubbing so many stories from their site itself.
9:38
Speaker 1: They are infamous. And they've had giant court cases about
9:43
Speaker 1: their own plagiarism. So not only is this just an insane,
9:47
Speaker 1: amazing story, and the reporter there did a great job
9:49
Speaker 1: going out there and talking to the owners, talking to
9:51
Speaker 1: the patrons, all that good stuff. As it turns out,
9:53
Speaker 1: they didn't even originate the story. They got it from
9:56
Speaker 1: some random podcaster in podcastistan like IE. am, and they
10:02
Speaker 1: actually took it from there, and they didn't originate and
10:04
Speaker 1: find the story. It's not exactly plagiaristic, but it's so
10:08
Speaker 1: on brand for the Boston Globe in the first place,
10:10
Speaker 1: where it wasn't even their original idea.
10:12
Speaker 2: Perfect.
10:13
Speaker 1: But let's take it for what it is, because what
10:15
Speaker 1: they've done is they've taken this and they've made the
10:17
Speaker 1: whole world aware of what's going on, because... It's so crazy.
10:21
Speaker 1: The national news outlets even picked up even. Well, by God,
10:24
Speaker 1: here's here's Glenn Beck talking about it just the other day.
10:27
Speaker 1: Lesbian bar nearly bullied out of town after list lifting
10:33
Speaker 1: mask mandate for one. That's what gets people the one
10:37
Speaker 1: night thing. Here's I think this is Newsmax talking about
10:41
Speaker 1: one of their guys.
10:42
Speaker 2: A lesbian bar in Massachusetts called The Last Ditch is
10:46
Speaker 2: making a last ditch effort to keep the doors open.
10:50
Speaker 1: Even here's Fox News. They did a reality check story
10:54
Speaker 1: on this one. Here you go.
10:55
Speaker 2: So many adjectives, Mary Catherine. So many adjectives. Massachusetts lesbian bar.
10:59
Speaker 2: mask disabled nouns in there as well. Um, the, uh,
11:04
Speaker 2: these people still exist that you got to wear a mask.
11:06
Speaker 2: They're like the Japanese warriors found on Pacific Island.
11:09
Speaker 1: It's pretty good. That's a great line from Will Kane.
11:11
Speaker 1: And he showed that that's right. But anyway, it's a
11:13
Speaker 1: national story. You've probably heard about it. It's one of
11:15
Speaker 1: the top trending stories in the world right now. But
11:19
Speaker 1: in the beginning there, I asked him the question, is
11:21
Speaker 1: this the story of the year? Because everything it has,
11:24
Speaker 1: and he may be thinking, Oh, come on now there's,
11:26
Speaker 1: we've got a, A war with Iran and the economy
11:29
Speaker 1: and those gas prices are terrible and the midterms are
11:31
Speaker 1: coming up. All right, I'll give you that if you're
11:34
Speaker 1: only into the serious news and you think this is
11:36
Speaker 1: just silly internet fodder. I get you. I hear you
11:39
Speaker 1: on that. But let's change the definition here. In order
11:43
Speaker 1: for something to be the story of the year, it
11:45
Speaker 1: has to reach most people. And this story is massive. Massive.
11:50
Speaker 1: More people understand, I guarantee you, more people understand this
11:53
Speaker 1: story and at least know some of the details than
11:55
Speaker 1: they are the origins of the Iran war conflict, honestly,
12:00
Speaker 1: because that's just over people's heads, but they get this
12:02
Speaker 1: because everybody has seen some woke insane lunatic that's still
12:06
Speaker 1: wearing a mask these days for no other reason, but fear,
12:09
Speaker 1: fear of the media and what that created. But I'm
12:11
Speaker 1: going so far as to say, I think our answer
12:12
Speaker 1: is yes. I think it's the story of the year.
12:14
Speaker 1: I truly do. And in all these reasons, I'm going
12:17
Speaker 1: to go so far. I truly think this is the
12:19
Speaker 1: story of the century so far in our 26 years
12:22
Speaker 1: into this century. I think this tops because it has everything.
12:25
Speaker 1: You think it's hyperbole and I'm taking that over the top?
12:28
Speaker 1: Let me make my case. First of all, the whole
12:31
Speaker 1: world is aware of this right now. They're aware of
12:33
Speaker 1: many things. They're aware of, as I pointed out, the
12:37
Speaker 1: insanity of Massachusetts, first and foremost, because now we've got,
12:40
Speaker 1: of all the stories, listen to all these stories here,
12:42
Speaker 1: and this is why I get on here and I
12:43
Speaker 1: feel bad talking about Massachusetts so much, but they're the
12:46
Speaker 1: ones creating all the insane stories. The Lindsay Clancy case,
12:49
Speaker 1: that Kutzko family who had their daughter stolen from them
12:52
Speaker 1: because they didn't want to transition her. She's 15, by
12:55
Speaker 1: the way, the mandatory home visits for new mommies, all
12:59
Speaker 1: stuff that's happened in the past 10 days out of
13:01
Speaker 1: that one area, that one small state. So the whole
13:04
Speaker 1: world is aware of that insanity. And I'm telling you,
13:06
Speaker 1: my entire radio career in South Florida, the number one
13:09
Speaker 1: question I was asked of people, and this is a
13:12
Speaker 1: cross section of people from all over the country. The
13:14
Speaker 1: number one question, hands down for decades being on the
13:18
Speaker 1: air and being in the public eye, at least regionally,
13:21
Speaker 1: was what's up with that state you're from? And I
13:24
Speaker 1: never quite had an answer for it to try to
13:26
Speaker 1: explain it because people just don't believe it. Stories like
13:29
Speaker 1: this get people to understand how much crazy is out there.
13:32
Speaker 1: And it's just focused in that state right now. And
13:34
Speaker 1: this story has it all. It also is a story
13:37
Speaker 1: of the century in my view because of this. It's
13:40
Speaker 1: proving a very important point. You look on and see
13:43
Speaker 1: memes and you go online or on X or on
13:45
Speaker 1: even YouTube or Instagram and you see people saying, woke
13:48
Speaker 1: is dead. See, it's another woke is dead. This has
13:51
Speaker 1: convinced you, I hope, to understand that woke is not dead. That,
13:57
Speaker 1: you know, this focus on race and gender and intersectionality
14:03
Speaker 1: and your feelings and all this other crap and dictating
14:06
Speaker 1: policy because of that. And if you don't, we're going
14:09
Speaker 1: to turn on you like a pack of hyenas. Woke
14:11
Speaker 1: is not dead. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. This
14:13
Speaker 1: is a perfect, perfect example of it. More people are
14:16
Speaker 1: aware of it, but now they're really aware that woke
14:18
Speaker 1: is not dead at all and it is affecting public policy.
14:22
Speaker 1: I talked about this with the Boston Globe. and being
14:25
Speaker 1: this most, this is the most popular, biggest story they've
14:29
Speaker 1: ever broken. I'll give them credit for it. Their paywall
14:34
Speaker 1: is going gangbusters. They've never had so many YouTube hits.
14:37
Speaker 1: They've never had so many Instagram hits. They've never had
14:39
Speaker 1: so much popularity. This is the number one thing they've ever,
14:43
Speaker 1: ever published. Again, sounds like hyperbole, but I mean it.
14:47
Speaker 1: I think this story actually may change journalism. Like truly,
14:50
Speaker 1: like Boston Globe, their parent, their master, the New York Times,
14:56
Speaker 1: the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, all of these incredibly
14:59
Speaker 1: leftist propaganda rags that have been pushing this stuff for
15:03
Speaker 1: over 70 years, they're realizing now, as we have this,
15:07
Speaker 1: the internet, and we can get information, people don't need
15:10
Speaker 1: them anymore. They don't, and they've been failing. Trump always
15:14
Speaker 1: calls them the failing New York Times. Well, the failing
15:16
Speaker 1: Boston Globe, too, and all those other outlets, too. Well,
15:18
Speaker 1: this is massive for them. They actually got people to
15:21
Speaker 1: pay them the dollar or whatever the hell it is
15:23
Speaker 1: to get behind the paywall and read this story. This
15:25
Speaker 1: actually may change their business model where they'll point out
15:29
Speaker 1: all the insane stories just simply to make a buck.
15:33
Speaker 1: And that's a good thing for you and me because
15:36
Speaker 1: it'll point out the insanity that's been out there that
15:39
Speaker 1: they never reported on before because they thought it would
15:41
Speaker 1: be offensive. Well, they may have to now. Their boards
15:45
Speaker 1: of directors may actually have to say, yeah, remember that
15:47
Speaker 1: crazy story Lesbian mask bar story, do more of that.
15:51
Speaker 1: And their news directors will say, okay, okay, whatever. Now,
15:54
Speaker 1: you may not call that journalism. You may not call
15:56
Speaker 1: it important. I say it is because it exposes all
15:58
Speaker 1: of this stuff. That's good for everybody. They may be
16:02
Speaker 1: forced to change their entire business model. And that's another
16:05
Speaker 1: thing why I think it's this particular little bar in Greenfield, Massachusetts,
16:10
Speaker 1: and their mask dispute story may become, may, I think,
16:13
Speaker 1: is the story of the year. It has pointed out
16:16
Speaker 1: to so many of us the insanity that we live
16:19
Speaker 1: through in COVID. Let's be honest here. So many of
16:22
Speaker 1: us just said, I don't want to think about it.
16:23
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about COVID.
16:24
Speaker 2: I don't know.
16:24
Speaker 1: We got through it. But we can't forget about it, really.
16:29
Speaker 1: You don't want to relive it, for God's sake, but
16:30
Speaker 1: you can't forget about the insanity that was. Do you
16:33
Speaker 1: know how many people heard about this lesbian mask dispute
16:37
Speaker 1: story in western Massachusetts and said, oh, my God, I
16:43
Speaker 1: wasn't one of those mask lunatics, was I? We got
16:46
Speaker 1: completely fooled. Believe it or not, I'm telling you, I
16:50
Speaker 1: mean this. This story has woken up so many people
16:52
Speaker 1: to that insanity that we live through. I think it
16:56
Speaker 1: points out everything. And it also points out the nastiness
16:59
Speaker 1: of the so-called loving, caring, accepting people until you disagree
17:04
Speaker 1: with them. Then they literally want to firebomb your bar,
17:07
Speaker 1: like that one comment that's said there. Unbelievable story. So
17:11
Speaker 1: you may be upset at me to talk about so
17:13
Speaker 1: many Massachusetts stories. in the past week, week and a half.
17:17
Speaker 1: It's not my fault. That's where most of the crazy
17:19
Speaker 1: is concentrated these days. I've been telling you this for years. Anyway,
17:23
Speaker 1: making a great weekend. At least we're not talking politics, really,
17:26
Speaker 1: too much. Thanks for finding me. I appreciate you so much.
17:29
Speaker 1: Wicked Radio, live stream, 8 a.m.-ish, Monday through Friday, X, YouTube, Facebook,
17:33
Speaker 1: and then the replay always lives on there. The audio podcast,
17:36
Speaker 1: more importantly, is uploaded shortly after the live stream every
17:39
Speaker 1: single day. It is Friday. We have made it. Make
17:41
Speaker 1: it a safe and awesome and joyous weekend. Love your family.
17:45
Speaker 1: Be safe. I'm telling you, read up on this story
17:49
Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you later.