Audio Interview, Bill Pritchard, February 16, 2012

  • BILL PRITCHARD: This is a good microphone?
  • I won't have to shout?
  • EVELYN BAILEY: No.
  • It will pick it up fine.
  • I'm here with Bill Pritchard in his now new hometown.
  • And we've been talking about the past, and the Alliance,
  • and his contribution to politics in Rochester.
  • And it was very interesting for me to hear his story
  • pre-Rochester and how he came to be in Rochester
  • and how he and Michael met.
  • So the first thing I wanted to do was ask you
  • where were you born?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And then you went to high school?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: In Hilton.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: So you were from Hilton?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Yeah.
  • Actually yeah, from Hilton.
  • I grew up in Hilton.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And then where did you go to college?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: St. John Fisher College.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And then you went into the military?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Yep.
  • Air Force.
  • Air Force Intelligence.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Air Force Intelligence.
  • Talk to me about that.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Well, I can't, because otherwise I'd be shot.
  • (Laughter)
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Then talk to me about your experience.
  • Were you out in the Air Force?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: No.
  • I mean, not at work.
  • But my social life was all gay.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And were you out in high school?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: No.
  • I wasn't out to myself.
  • I didn't know in high school.
  • I suspected but didn't know.
  • No, it wasn't until I got into college.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And in the military did
  • you experience any negativity because of your being gay?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: No, they didn't know.
  • I mean, the people I worked with didn't know.
  • The military didn't know I was gay.
  • The only thing I was subjected to
  • occasionally was the occasional crude joke.
  • But no, I experienced no discrimination.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And where did you meet Michael?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: In Norfolk, Virginia.
  • He had just gotten out of the Navy.
  • I was still in the Air Force.
  • And we met through a mutual friend.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And how long were you out of Rochester?
  • When did you come back to Rochester?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: A total of five years.
  • I was gone for five years.
  • I came back to Rochester in September of 1990.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And were you involved with the community?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Almost from the beginning.
  • One of the first things I did was attend a meeting
  • that September actually, just after we
  • had moved to Rochester, of the Rochester Lesbian and Gay
  • Political Caucus.
  • And at that meeting, Susan John and Joe Morelle
  • were speaking as candidates for state assembly.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And what happened?
  • How did that go from attending the meeting to becoming--
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Well, I think what happens in a lot of cases,
  • there were people who had been--
  • I think the chairpersonship of the group
  • had been handed back and forth between people who had
  • been members for a long time.
  • I was one of the newer faces in the crowd.
  • And by February of 1991--
  • (Side conversation with waiter)
  • So anyways, by February of 1991, it
  • was the person who was chair at the time needed to resign.
  • I think it was Jenny Bowker.
  • She had other things she needed to do,
  • couldn't be chair of the caucus anymore.
  • And I was nominated mainly because I
  • think everybody else in the room had
  • been the chair of the group at least once.
  • And I hadn't been chair at all so it
  • was my turn, even though I had only been there
  • for a couple of months.
  • And then I ended up being chair of the political caucus
  • for the next four years.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And what did the political caucus do?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Well, the political caucus
  • was the political group in Rochester
  • before the Empire State Pride Agenda.
  • And It had been in existence for a number of years.
  • I certainly wasn't the first or second chair of that group.
  • It had a long history before I came on board.
  • And pre-Emprire State Pride Agenda days,
  • it played a significant role in representing
  • Rochester's LGBT community in the political arena.
  • As Empire State Pride Agenda increased its presence
  • in Rochester, the political caucus' role
  • was less important, if you will, because the Empire State Pride
  • Agenda had full time people at their disposal.
  • They had lobbyists in Albany.
  • But it also represented the transition in our community.
  • One from where most of our political work
  • was done by community activists, to more
  • of a sophisticated role where we had people
  • paid to do that lobbying.
  • Still as passionate nonetheless, but they were paid.
  • And I think that that kind of transition
  • is represented across many communities, not just
  • the gay and lesbian community, and not
  • just in political groups.
  • Nonprofits go through the same thing.
  • AIDS Rochester is a good example of an organization formed
  • by activists.
  • And after a certain point as an organization grows,
  • there's a transition from its very committed community
  • activist leaders to those who have perhaps more
  • experience or training in running
  • nonprofit organizations.
  • It happened with AIDS Rochester, and to a degree
  • it happened on a broader level with the political activity
  • in our community.
  • We needed to rely on the paid guns, if you will,
  • like (unintelligible).
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Now, the political caucus a part of the alliance?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: It had a relationship with the Gay
  • Alliance, but it wasn't a formal one
  • because of the political nature of the group.
  • But we were considered in some way affiliated
  • with the Gay Alliance
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And did you recommend candidates?
  • Was it your group that put the list of gay friendly candidates
  • in the Empty Closet?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Yes we did.
  • We would survey candidates, and based
  • on the responses to the survey we
  • would make recommendations who the gay community should
  • consider supporting in those fall elections.
  • I'll never forget one year, two interesting stories,
  • one dealing with David Gantt and Wade Norwood.
  • This had to have been 1993.
  • It was.
  • Wade was up for re-election to city council.
  • And we had surveyed all the candidates for city council,
  • and Wade never responded.
  • Now, I've gotten to know Wade a lot better many, many years
  • later, and I now realize that that was probably
  • a product of his disorganization and not a lack of caring.
  • However, because he hadn't responded,
  • we decided to not endorse an alternative to Wade
  • but just not include him in our recommendations.
  • I remember at the party's convention.
  • I remember like it was yesterday.
  • We were at the School of the Arts,
  • and it was me and Tom Fraase.
  • And I'm pretty sure Don Belack was there, and a few others.
  • And David Gantt walks up to us.
  • Because David Gantt, of course, was Wade's political mentor.
  • And he doesn't really know me, but he
  • knows Tom, because Tom had been involved in Democratic Party
  • politics for a number of years.
  • And David also knows, at the time, of course,
  • that Tom is involved in the gay community.
  • He walks right up to Tom Fraase, and he starts waving his finger
  • and screaming at him.
  • "How could you not recommend Wade Norwood?
  • What is wrong with you?
  • I'm going to get you guys, you're
  • going to regret this, blah blah blah."
  • And we're trying to explain to David.
  • We're jumping and trying to stand in solidarity with Tom,
  • because he was getting the full brunt of it,
  • to explain that Wade had never responded to the survey.
  • Well, that was probably putting gasoline on the fire for David,
  • because he basically in so many words,
  • and if I remember correctly, some of them
  • were colorful words.
  • "How could we be so stupid to withhold a recommendation
  • from someone like Wade?"
  • We know he's with us.
  • Just because he didn't return some kind of--
  • four letter word, he described it-- survey.
  • Second experience was in 1991, just a couple years
  • before that, actually, before the exchange
  • with David and Wade.
  • Bob King was running for county executive.
  • And he was running against Tom Frey, the incumbent Democrat
  • county executive.
  • And we wanted to meet with both candidates.
  • And of course, Tom was very available.
  • Tom came to the Gay Alliance where we met.
  • He met with the group and answered our survey.
  • And Bob didn't, and Bob wouldn't.
  • Instead, I met with Irene Matichyn,
  • who was his campaign manager.
  • And I was new and naive to politics.
  • I was new in politics and naive about politics at the time.
  • And I had some very good conversations with Irene,
  • and she came across as very friendly.
  • And I'm thinking, this is all really good.
  • At the time, it was looking like, of course,
  • it bore out that Bob did beat Tom Frye.
  • So I was looking at that time during the race,
  • he's going to be our county executive,
  • and we need to have a relationship
  • with the next county executive whether he's
  • a Democrat or a Republican.
  • The Empty Closet comes out with the story.
  • And it was true, but it probably could have been worded
  • differently for Irene's liking.
  • The article basically said that Bob would not
  • meet with the gay community unless it
  • was behind closed doors.
  • Which is all true.
  • She didn't say it that way.
  • She wanted to meet with the executive committee
  • of the political caucus.
  • Bob was too busy to come to a community type forum
  • to talk about his issues and his stance
  • on gay and lesbian issues as a candidate for county executive,
  • et cetera, et cetera.
  • She calls me up.
  • And now, this is before cellphones.
  • And we're living with my grandmother
  • and she'd had my number.
  • That was my number.
  • I didn't have a cell phone, that was my number to contact me
  • when I wasn't at work.
  • And she calls my grandmother's house
  • and my grandmother answers the phone.
  • And of course, Irene was very polite to my grandmother,
  • thank god.
  • Gets me on the phone, and when my grandmother
  • was just a few feet away in her kitchen,
  • starts screaming at me over the telephone,
  • over the Empty Closet article.
  • "How dare you tell people that Bob King won't meet with you,
  • won't meet with your caucus?
  • I told you we would."
  • I'm trying to hold my ground, but Irene Matichyn
  • was a bull in a china shop, she still is.
  • "Irene, you did tell me you didn't want
  • any kind of public meeting."
  • "I didn't put it that way."
  • I said, "Well, the article didn't quite
  • put it the way you said it, but the point
  • is basically still the same."
  • Tom was willing to meet with the community in an open forum
  • and Bob was not.
  • "He's going to be the next county executive,
  • and he's going to represent all the people.
  • And you've got to understand that."
  • Oh my God.
  • It was an interesting conversation.
  • It was one of the beginning ways that I
  • cut my teeth on politics.
  • And I would hope, certainly over the years,
  • I became less naive about politics.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Did those experiences then
  • give you some insight into your future political career?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Well, I knew I was always
  • interested in politics.
  • And I was at the same time, at the time
  • that this all occurred, I was working for Tim Mains
  • as his legislative aide.
  • So I was already immersed in city issues.
  • Two years later after this exchange with Irene,
  • it was the '93 election.
  • I had mentioned that earlier about Wade.
  • Tim's reelected 1994 fresh off of a reelection victory
  • where he was not the favorite candidate.
  • He did not get the party's endorsement.
  • He was able to be successful in the September
  • primary, of course, went on to win in the fall.
  • Early 1994, he decides now's the time
  • to pass domestic partnership legislation for city employees
  • and to establish a domestic partnership
  • registry for anyone, regardless of where they live,
  • to be able to come to the city and register
  • their domestic partnership.
  • That was a great opportunity for me,
  • because while working with Tim I was also still
  • the head of the political caucus.
  • I was on the Gay Alliance board by now.
  • So I was becoming very involved in the community.
  • And I took on in helping support the political side,
  • the electoral side, of this, the legislative side.
  • I organized the community effort to give him coverage,
  • give those on council who were supporting him coverage.
  • From what we knew, it was going to come their way, and it did.
  • In 1994, domestic partnership wasn't a new issue.
  • It had happened in a number of Californian cities before.
  • But for Rochester it was new.
  • For Rochester, it was breaking new ground.
  • And we were successful for both getting domestic partner
  • benefits for city employees and for the registry.
  • In fact, Michael and I were the first to register.
  • But it was coming out of that experience and the others
  • in that time period.
  • I had always been interested in possibly
  • being an elected official and being in politics.
  • Those experiences helped me focus on to the office
  • I wanted to hold, and I wanted to be on city council.
  • I had begun to develop a very strong passionate belief
  • in urban planning and city issues,
  • and doing what I could to help rescue
  • our cities from their decline.
  • At least what you're able to do on such a low level,
  • as far as a lower level in government.
  • So yeah, that was when I really began to focus.
  • I was already involved in democratic politics.
  • I was already involved in campaigns.
  • But it was really around that time period
  • I thought, you know, I could be an elected official.
  • I could do this, and I'd want to do it.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: What moved you to be
  • more involved with the alliance and become
  • president of the alliance?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: You know, it was 1992,
  • and it may very well have been Chuck
  • who was the one who said-- and you were on the board
  • too at the time.
  • It might have been you and Chuck.
  • I was already involved in the political caucus.
  • I was working for Tim Mains.
  • I can't remember if I approached you guys,
  • or maybe it might have been a combination.
  • I was thinking about it.
  • And I think there's some openings coming up.
  • And they said, "Geez Bill, you're
  • involved in this and that, why don't you, you know."
  • I had an interest in the organization.
  • I was already familiar with it, obviously,
  • as a member of the political caucus
  • and our affiliation with the GAGV.
  • And just being more involved in increasing involvement
  • in the community, knowing what the Gay Alliance did,
  • what it fought for.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Were there any paid employees at that time?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Susan Jordan.
  • And Harlow Russell.
  • Remember Harlow?
  • Who was our bookkeeper.
  • And may God rest him, God bless his soul.
  • But Harlow was so funny.
  • Even before I was on the board, I spent a lot of time
  • in the building on Atlantic Avenue.
  • And I was writing for the Empty Closet, I had a column,
  • and of course I was involved in the political caucus and all
  • that.
  • And Harlow would give me the hardest time.
  • "You're an assimilationist.
  • You're an assimilationist."
  • You know, frankly, I was younger.
  • I don't think I really understood
  • what an assimilationist was.
  • I just knew Harlow, the way he was saying it,
  • it wasn't a good thing.
  • I would say, "No I'm not."
  • So anyway, we had the two.
  • Harlow was part time, our time bookkeeper.
  • And Susan Jordan was the full time Empty Closet editor.
  • And I joined in '92, I was chair of the Human Resources
  • Committee.
  • And the next year I became vice president of the board.
  • And then I was in that position for about a year and a half.
  • During that time period, the alliance
  • did hire our first full time employee separate from Susan.
  • Susan was dedicated, as you know,
  • exclusively to the Empty Closet, had been for years.
  • We were hiring someone who would focus
  • on the rest of the operation.
  • We developed a job description, we had interviews.
  • There was some dissension in the community
  • and on the board of who we should choose.
  • We ended up going with Tanya Salinsky.
  • And I was still vice president.
  • Lloyd Gray was president.
  • He succeeded Paul Scheib.
  • I think, actually, Tanya came on board in the last months
  • of Paul Scheib's presidency.
  • He did.
  • Because I was still chair of human resources.
  • I led the effort in the hiring process.
  • First of all, I had no experience and resources,
  • so it was not the best position for me to be in.
  • But nonetheless, that's where I was.
  • Me and Marta Melinsky.
  • And there was somebody else on that committee,
  • and I can't remember who it was.
  • It was me, Marta, and somebody else.
  • Anyways, we ended up--
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Dick Cannett?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: No, it wasn't Dick.
  • It wasn't Dick.
  • So we recommended to the board, we recommend Tanya.
  • And I don't recall, I don't think it was a unanimous vote,
  • but majority went with Tanya.
  • Paul Scheib, in his final months, dealt with her.
  • And then of course Lloyd became president.
  • I became vice president.
  • And after Lloyd was there, he was there
  • for one full year term, and then part of a second one year term,
  • and he left.
  • I can't remember if he quit the board because he was moving out
  • of town.
  • I do know that I suspect that he left the board--
  • would have left the board anyways.
  • I say that laughingly, because a little over a year and a half
  • later, I did the same thing.
  • And the reason was Tanya.
  • I know this is going to be heard by people forever,
  • so I will withhold my most severe comments.
  • But a new organization, a new employee, and it
  • was volunteer board members who were
  • serving as de facto executive directors.
  • It was a challenge for everybody.
  • It was a challenging relationship for Tanya,
  • for Lloyd, and then for me.
  • And those were growing pains, those years.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: I want to go back, though.
  • Before the first center director was hired.
  • Were the services that the Alliance was offering,
  • were they in more demand?
  • Was the Alliance growing in its outreach?
  • What precipitated the need to hire
  • a center director or an ED?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: As people came on the board
  • like me, people who hadn't been involved
  • with the board as a board member for a number of years,
  • we saw the amount of work that board members put
  • into running the organization.
  • And then, of course, I experienced that firsthand,
  • to a lesser degree as vice president.
  • I did work closely with Lloyd, but Lloyd was the president.
  • And then as president.
  • But I knew it even before I got in those positions,
  • that it was a great deal of work.
  • And I felt, and others agreed with me, I think.
  • Most of the board agreed that if the organization was ever
  • going to grow into something bigger than it currently
  • was at the time, it would likely not
  • get there without the presence of at least a few, or at least
  • one, full time paid employee.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Were there grants at the time?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: I don't call any grants.
  • Our main funding sources, The Empty Closet
  • was generating a profit prize for the organization,
  • our membership dues.
  • This was in the days before the New York state health grants.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And the major fund raising efforts.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: The picnic, the events.
  • In those years too, though, those first couple of years
  • we were also receiving money from ImageOut.
  • Though I think the current organization does give the Gay
  • Alliance its due, ImageOut started as a program
  • with the Gay Alliance.
  • I had the good fortune of being there
  • when the relationship started.
  • And I had the misfortune of being president of the board
  • and at the meeting in November.
  • I think it was 1996 when Jamie went back
  • and Susan Soleil stormed into the executive committee,
  • handed us a letter, and left.
  • And the letter said, we, ImageOut are hereby--
  • actually, at the time it was called the Rochester Lesbian
  • Gay Film Festival--
  • are hereby announcing our emancipation
  • from the Gay Alliance.
  • And we will work with you and provide some of our net
  • proceeds to you over the next year,
  • because we need your 501(c)(3) status to operate.
  • But at the end of that twelve month period,
  • we will be completely emancipated.
  • And this wasn't posed to us in the form of a question.
  • It was a done deal.
  • And I laugh about it now.
  • Actually, you may have been in that room, Evelyn.
  • In that executive committee meeting.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: No, I don't think executive committee.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: For me, it was an extremely challenging
  • incident for a number of reasons.
  • And of course, now I have eighteen, almost twenty years
  • of hindsight to benefit from.
  • But at the time, it felt like a huge betrayal.
  • We felt we'd given life to the festival.
  • The people who had come together and dedicated their hearts
  • and souls felt otherwise.
  • Not to the degree that we did.
  • From the get go, there was a significant difference
  • of opinion over the true purpose of the festival.
  • We saw it on the board as being a revenue
  • generator and secondarily a nice thing for the community.
  • The group of volunteers that had come together,
  • Larry Chiampou, Susan Soleil, David Emert and others,
  • felt that first and foremost it was a community benefit.
  • A show of artistic expression in film and video.
  • And that the cost to put on the festival and the money
  • that it netted, the revenue that it netted,
  • were secondary issues.
  • And it was a difference of opinion.
  • We tried.
  • We tried in those months leading up
  • to that delivery of the letter.
  • The difference of opinion was just too great.
  • We were never going to completely cede
  • control of the financial arm of the group,
  • and they felt like we were holding them back
  • on the creative side.
  • And you know what?
  • In hindsight, they were right.
  • The best thing for the festival that ever happened
  • was breaking away from the Gay Alliance,
  • because it gave the group the opportunity
  • to focus on the artistic side.
  • And fortunately, over time, the individuals
  • I mentioned a minute ago and others who came on board
  • began to realize that this can be
  • a fantastic expression of art, and it can also make money.
  • And I think that came about because unlike when it was
  • under the Gay Alliance, they now had one-hundred percent
  • responsibility for the financial side of the event,
  • whereas before they didn't.
  • And so even though it was painful at the time,
  • and it was years before I ever spoke to Susan
  • or Larry or David again.
  • It took years.
  • And Jamie, to a lesser degree Jamie, but still
  • for a while Jamie.
  • But it was for the best.
  • And it was the best for them, and it was
  • the best for the Gay Alliance.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: So move forward to leaving the Alliance in 1997?
  • '98?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: November of '96.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: November '96.
  • And you no longer were president.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Nope.
  • Well, I was president when I resigned.
  • I just came to a point where I was working
  • for Tim Mains and Susan John.
  • And in fact, I remember very clearly all these years later,
  • we were having the executive committee meeting.
  • And Michael and I didn't have a lot of money.
  • We had one car.
  • How I was typically getting between offices--
  • I would work for Tim in the morning
  • and Susan in the afternoons--
  • I typically walked between city hall and Susan's office
  • over the village gate.
  • Which on a nice day isn't such a bad walk.
  • This was November.
  • An early storm had come about.
  • I'm walking, I'm cold, I'm tired.
  • And I had a lot going on, and obviously that
  • wasn't the first day all that happened.
  • And I just broke.
  • I walk in to the executive committee meeting,
  • and I'm walking in there with the thoughts
  • of what am I doing?
  • And of course, there were also growing pains
  • with the new staff and the whole new structural relationship
  • that we were trying to build in the Gay Alliance.
  • So I had all that pressure and all that grief
  • and walking between jobs in winter.
  • I got to spend more time on me.
  • So I walked in, and about halfway
  • through the executive committee meeting,
  • I said Harry, sorry to do this to you--
  • because he was vice president--
  • I said I'm resigning.
  • This is it for me.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: I didn't know that story.
  • Never to return to the board.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: No.
  • Now, you and Chick, and a couple others are the exceptions.
  • Most board members leave never to return,
  • and I fell into that group.
  • I don't regret my little over four and a half years
  • on the board.
  • I don't regret it for a minute.
  • I met some great people.
  • We met way back when.
  • I've maintained some longtime friendships.
  • Having said all of that.
  • I never had any interest in returning to the board.
  • And John even asked me once, it was back a couple of years ago
  • actually.
  • So a number of years had passed.
  • I think he was vice president at the time under Tom.
  • It was the reincarnation of the HPA event,
  • that first year that they brought it back.
  • I'm at that one of the parties, and John said, "Would you
  • ever consider coming back on the Gay Alliance board?"
  • And I said something to the effect of,
  • "John, I'm extremely flattered that you would ask,
  • and absolutely not."
  • INTERVIEWER So talk to me a little bit
  • about the impact of AIDS during the early '90s.
  • AIDS Rochester had been begun in 1986, '85.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: '85, yes, something like that.
  • Well, actually, it started before that.
  • I think they started as a very small volunteer operation back
  • in '82, '83, on the second floor of Tara's.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And by 1990, 92, AIDS Rochester
  • was incorporated, I think.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Oh absolutely, yes.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And then by '96, it was on University.
  • And the numbers had begun to come down and the funding.
  • Was the funding a problem?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: No, in fact, I was the development director
  • for AIDS Rochester for three years, from '97 to 2000.
  • During my time there, we had the highest and second
  • highest grossing AIDS walks in the agency's history.
  • At that time, funding was not an issue for AIDS.
  • There were still a number of people who were supporting it
  • with their individual gifts.
  • Corporations were still very supportive,
  • and there were a number of grants.
  • And the AIDS Institute was, if not flush with money,
  • certainly it was well funded.
  • But there were already changes happening in the demographics
  • of the disease.
  • Even by '97, we were beginning to see an increasing
  • number of women of color coming through as HIV positive, who
  • had become infected through unprotected sex.
  • In many cases, either with their husbands
  • who were on the down low, or not through sex
  • but through drug use, injection drug use.
  • And we also began to see, in the mid '90s, an increasing number
  • of gay men of color turning up HIV
  • positive for a number of reasons.
  • So the demographic and the face of AIDS was changing.
  • The funding hadn't really changed significantly.
  • In fact, we observed in my three years at AIDS Rochester,
  • we observed when you looked at our events, certainly
  • the AIDS walk.
  • You look around the faces of the people who were present.
  • And we knew back at the agency, our events
  • were probably at that time eighty-five
  • to ninety percent white people in attendance.
  • We knew back at the agency when it was food cupboard day
  • that seventy-five to eighty percent of our clients
  • were either African American or Latino.
  • The people who were comprising the stalwart supporters
  • were people who had lost sons, husbands, or partners years ago
  • and were still involved because they still
  • embraced the memory of their departed loved one over time.
  • We began to see inklings of this by the time I left in 2000.
  • It really started taking effect between 2000, 2004, 2005.
  • The decline in the funding for AIDS
  • mirrored the decline in interest for a number of reasons.
  • Some of them racial, some of them economic.
  • The people becoming infected were poor people, generally
  • speaking.
  • And then these people I had mentioned a minute ago,
  • the Caucasians who had lost husbands, sons,
  • partners, to AIDS.
  • Brothers.
  • And you notice I'm being very specific in my use of gender.
  • Because in the early '80s, early '90s, it was mostly gay men.
  • That had been changing.
  • And by the early 2000s there was a significant change.
  • Not the gay men, and as we know, gay men
  • were still becoming infected.
  • But the number of gay men becoming infected
  • was being outpaced by the number of straight women
  • and straight men through injection drug use, primarily.
  • Additionally, all the gay men who were becoming infected,
  • an increasing percentage were men of color.
  • And from a fund raising perspective, from a funding
  • perspective, from a community fund raising perspective,
  • we were beginning to have populations
  • that just didn't have the disposable income
  • to support the agency.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Now, put this in a time frame.
  • Who was executive director at the time?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: At AIDS Rochester?
  • Paula Silvestron.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And was Michael Beatty there?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: The associate executive director.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And Jeff Kost?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: I replaced Jeff as director of development.
  • Who I stayed in touch with.
  • In fact, we were just in Washington a couple of weeks
  • ago for dinner with me and Michael.
  • We've stayed friends all these years.
  • He's been gone now.
  • He left Rochester in 1997.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Well then, I will be coming down again,
  • because I would really like to get you
  • and Bilda Stevens and Bob Giordano.
  • And I want to interview Jeff Kost.
  • I emailed his sister to see where he was,
  • because he has another life.
  • He has many lives, but he has another life in the community
  • aside from AIDS Rochester.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Well, he certainly did.
  • I think we both are referring to the same thing.
  • He dabbled for a brief period of time
  • in the entertainment business.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Yes, he did.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: But Jeff is a wonderful person.
  • And in fact, we were just talking about Jeff
  • the other day with someone.
  • I was using him as an example, and I said, "You know,
  • Jeff and I have many of the same passions.
  • And we know many of the same people."
  • And actually, I got into my fund raising career because of Jeff.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: How so?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Well, because when he left AIDS Rochester,
  • I was working for Action for a Better Community
  • and health in AIDS policy.
  • I had a little bit of fund raising,
  • but I really liked AIDS Rochester.
  • I had done some volunteer fund raising,
  • I had no professional experience.
  • But part of the job also involved AIDS advocacy,
  • and you know, I've been in government
  • for a number of years, I knew that stuff.
  • And so I took a chance and I applied.
  • And Paula took a chance on me.
  • Paula Silvestrone then hired me.
  • The difference between me and Jeff
  • though, our careers have been similar,
  • we have many friends in common.
  • Jeff's a lot nicer than me.
  • So there isn't a single person I've ever
  • met who doesn't like Jeff Kost.
  • That's true.
  • I have never met a person who does not like Jeff Kost.
  • He's just one of those people.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: He is, he is.
  • So after AIDS Rochester, you went on to city council.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: No, no.
  • There was a few years after that.
  • I went on to work at Rochester Institute of Technology
  • in fund raising.
  • And it was while I was there I was appointed to city council
  • in August of 2003.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: In the six years you were on council,
  • identify for me two highlights.
  • Two things that stand out most in your mind.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Well, highlights not necessarily in a good way.
  • But the things that come to mind immediately, one of them
  • is I'll never forget the incident that happened
  • on South Goodman street.
  • There was a group of, I think, four women and one or two guys.
  • It was two in the morning, they were coming back
  • from one of the bars on Monroe Avenue.
  • It wasn't the Pub.
  • It was one of the others.
  • And they ended up getting in a fight
  • with a group of people who were sitting on their porch.
  • It ended up with a bunch of gay slurs being shouted.
  • It ended up with the police being called to the scene,
  • and a couple of police officers not being as sensitive as they
  • could have been to the situation.
  • And in fact, getting angry with and charging
  • three of the people who had been beaten up with disorderly
  • conduct.
  • In the gay community, it became a rallying cry
  • against the police because of the accusations of homophobia,
  • police brutality, you know.
  • And in my political career, I always
  • took the position that people are
  • innocent until proven guilty.
  • And I saw, as a lot of people did,
  • the raw emotion or emotions that were involved with that event.
  • And I knew something was wrong.
  • I wasn't one-hundred percent sure that it was all
  • the policemen's fault. Or even was is it
  • the number of policemen, was it one or two?
  • Did that group that got beaten up,
  • did they contribute to their own circumstance?
  • I did believe at the time, and I still do, they did.
  • But I wasn't going to call come out like others did
  • and call for the policemen who were in the incident
  • to be suspended, automatically saying
  • that they were homophobes, et cetera, et cetera.
  • And I met downtown at Presbyterian church,
  • and there's a community forum.
  • The Gay Alliance I think sponsored it.
  • Alex Cobus actually, the anti-violence project
  • sponsored it.
  • And I was the only member of city council who attended.
  • Somebody asked me a question about it.
  • And I said basically what I just said.
  • I said our police officers deserve the right to be
  • innocent until proven guilty.
  • There's been an investigation that has begun,
  • and they deserve the opportunity for
  • a fair, unbiased investigation.
  • Well, there were certain people in the room
  • who didn't agree with that.
  • And I was called several things.
  • And what bothered me was that a couple of the people
  • actually questioned my support of the gay community.
  • I said, "This has nothing to do with my support
  • for the gay community.
  • This is my opinion, is my support
  • of what I believe is right.
  • And people are innocent until proven guilty."
  • That stands out.
  • This is like a montage, a collage of impressions.
  • I can remember being in the gay parade.
  • And I think it was the last one.
  • It was.
  • It was is the last one I walked in.
  • It had to have been 2008, because I didn't walk in 2009.
  • I was already on my way out, and I said, "My time's done."
  • I hadn't watched the parade in like seventeen years.
  • I had marched in it every year.
  • I wanted to watch the parade for a change.
  • Well, we're marching, and I'm walking with Mayor Duffy.
  • And I'm still getting chills now, I can still remember it.
  • It was at one point along the march.
  • And of course they always have to have a couple
  • of haters in the group.
  • It was at one of the intersections,
  • and there were several of them.
  • And in the past, they would say just nasty
  • rotten anti-gay things, and then have signs that were horrible.
  • You learn to just ignore it.
  • None of the gay people in the parade
  • were receiving any of the attention from these haters.
  • It was all being directed in extremely negative tones
  • and words against Mayor Duffy and Chief Moore, Police Chief
  • Moore.
  • Hang on a minute.
  • (Side conversation)
  • And oh my God, the chief and the mayor were just being vilified.
  • Called all kinds of nasty, nasty things.
  • And the way the two of them handled it,
  • and I can't remember exactly what the mayor said.
  • We were walking together, and we were talking.
  • And it was his comments, his supportive comments
  • of the gay cause, and his dismissive comments of--
  • without even being rude or anything, but just
  • those poor people.
  • They're just sad.
  • And I started to tear up.
  • Even right now.
  • Because it was just such a moment
  • in the face of just unadulterated hate,
  • venomous hate.
  • That people who didn't need to be in that parade,
  • chose to be there.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: That's an incredible experience.
  • So now, having left Rochester and looking back,
  • as we've done quite a bit.
  • What would you identify in your Rochester experience
  • as the most growth producing personally for you?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: I mean, there were several experiences
  • and people who helped me grow as a person and in my professions,
  • political and fund raising.
  • Some of the people who I perhaps have ended up
  • having the most significant disagreements with I probably
  • learned the most from.
  • Over the years, Tim Mains and I began
  • to see less and less of an agreement,
  • or be less and less in agreement.
  • It was inevitable.
  • He'd been my boss, my mentor, and I'd
  • outgrown that relationship.
  • And I think it was a challenging dynamic for both of us
  • to handle, especially when we became colleagues.
  • And I was no longer the legislative aide.
  • I was now a full fledged colleague
  • with my own opinions, my own ideas, my own ambitions.
  • And so he and I certainly had our differences
  • and our disagreements, and in spite of the sometimes heated
  • disagreements that he and I had, I
  • think I probably learned from him.
  • He was one of the people of a handful of people
  • back in Rochester who I learned the most
  • from in a political context about politics
  • and about being in politics.
  • One of the people in a personal way
  • in the context of my gay part of my life, if you will,
  • who perhaps I learned the most from and admire the most even
  • to this day is Sue Cowell.
  • Even though I accidentally backed into her car
  • when I was home on a visit last summer.
  • And when I had to go door to door
  • and I came across the house, actually
  • she was in Tom Fraase's house.
  • And I said, "Tom," because there was a gay flag on the car,
  • I said, "Tom, do you have any visitors right now?"
  • And he said, "Yes, Sue Cowell's here."
  • Oh shit.
  • It was her car.
  • $1,200 worth of damage later, but in spite of that, I did.
  • I learned a lot from her.
  • Perhaps the most I admire about her is that she hasn't stopped.
  • I came and went.
  • I was there for a few years, and I'm gone.
  • Sue's been in the community, you've been in the community,
  • for decades.
  • And thank god you have.
  • And the organizations I was involved in, I would not have.
  • I learned as a leader of the caucus, as a board member
  • at the Alliance, it was my first real board.
  • Because the caucus was more of a group, it wasn't on board.
  • The Alliance was a board.
  • And dealing with the varying personalities,
  • I'll never forget.
  • God love Judge Yacknin.
  • I'll never forget.
  • I still laugh to this day when she was on the board.
  • And she had the most artful way of disagreeing with you,
  • and you knew it was coming.
  • She would go on, and she would start off
  • by saying after you've said something,
  • and if you didn't know her, you would get blindsided.
  • Because she would go on for a couple of sentences,
  • "I think that's a wonderful thought on your part."
  • Until you started knowing her better
  • and picking up the subtleties in what she was saying
  • and the words she was choosing.
  • Because then you knew.
  • You knew that any moment, and she didn't usually use the word
  • but, but it was coming.
  • I'll never forget that.
  • But she would drive me insane on the board sometimes.
  • But it was a good learning experience,
  • because she is an extremely smart individual.
  • And you've got to learn.
  • If you're not one of the smartest people at the table,
  • and I never have been, you've got
  • to learn how to work with the smartest
  • people around the table, because they'll
  • dance circles around you if you don't
  • learn how to work with them.
  • So I eventually learned.
  • Never completely, because she's a lot smarter than I am.
  • But once I learned the cues, I knew what to avoid,
  • certainly what things, what buzzwords to avoid.
  • But it was a good experience.
  • She taught me a lot.
  • She knows.
  • Ron Kwasman, too.
  • Ron Kwasman.
  • Sort of a different learning experience,
  • and I say this with a heart full of goodwill for him,
  • but in those days he could be a real SOB.
  • And being a fellow board member, whereas Ellen
  • could disagree with you but do it in an eloquent way,
  • there was no eloquence about Ron's disagreement with you.
  • And you know that, you're smiling.
  • But that was also a good learning experience,
  • because you also had to deal with people who, like Ron, are
  • very, very strident in communicating
  • their points of view.
  • And I'm not even saying whether he was right or wrong,
  • because there were times when he was right,
  • there were times where he was wrong.
  • It didn't matter.
  • Even when he was wrong, he would just as forcefully
  • convey his opinion.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: That's true.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: And the whole experience with ImageOut.
  • I learned a lot from that.
  • I was too controlling.
  • I wasn't seeing the big picture and it took a while
  • it took some years of hindsight to realize,
  • like I said earlier, that it was the best thing.
  • Them breaking away was the best thing for both organizations.
  • Some of the personell challenges I encountered
  • at the Gay Alliance I think began
  • building a foundation for me to be a better manager
  • as I progressed in my career.
  • And the friends.
  • Don Belack, I'm friends with him to this day.
  • I was just speaking with him today on the phone.
  • And I could go on and on, but I'd eat up your tape.
  • But the number of people who I met and learned from back
  • in Rochester in a political and in a non-political context.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: What makes you not afraid to be who you are?
  • I know that's a tough question.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: I think if Michael were here,
  • my partner, I think he would say probably, I'm guessing,
  • that I'm full of myself.
  • And I don't think I'm full of myself.
  • Sometimes a sense of security can inadvertently come across
  • as being full of yourself.
  • I'm sure of myself.
  • I'm not full of myself.
  • And I tie that right back to how I was raised.
  • I had a very supportive home environment.
  • I grew up like a lot of kids don't today.
  • I had two parents in the house.
  • My mother didn't work until we were teens.
  • Outside of the house, that is.
  • We had food on the table, a roof over our heads.
  • We weren't rich.
  • In fact, we were probably by today's standards
  • certainly I would say--
  • we didn't realize it at the time,
  • we were probably lower middle class.
  • But we had a good home environment.
  • And that helped prepare me for what would come as an adult
  • later.
  • And be surer of myself, and be able to stand up
  • and say who I am.
  • Whether it's in the middle of reelection in 2005
  • in an African American church downtown
  • talk about my partner, one the last places that politically
  • speaking you'd want to do that.
  • Because generally speaking, it's pretty much true today
  • as it was then.
  • Especially in more of the evangelical African American
  • churches, gays are not fully embraced.
  • I didn't care.
  • Or it's like when I was running for re-reelection
  • and I sought the auto workers endorsement.
  • And I owned two foreign cars at the time.
  • And I started off my interview by stating that,
  • being very matter of fact.
  • And then I explained why I was there in spite of that,
  • and I got endorsed.
  • But it goes back to the way I was raised.
  • And the things that happened in between the time I
  • was a child and a teenager and today.
  • My experiences in the Gay Alliance
  • in the political caucus, my professional positions,
  • my time in politics.
  • They've just reinforced for me.
  • While there are some things I'll compromise,
  • I'd like to think that I didn't compromise
  • my political ideology too much on council.
  • And I think most people would agree,
  • because I still have to this day some of my very liberal friends
  • who still say I was the most--
  • while I was on city council, there
  • was one Republican on council.
  • I'll never compromise who I am, whether it's
  • being a gay man in a congregation filled
  • with straight African American men,
  • or a registered Democrat in a sea of Republicans,
  • like I am moreso here on a daily basis.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Were you ever afraid of being a gay person?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: I don't recall being afraid.
  • I think concerned, which maybe this is one degree below
  • afraid.
  • When I was in the military.
  • And the reason for that was I saw
  • people who were removed from service because they
  • were discovered to be gay.
  • There was one guy in particular who was my sponsor when
  • I got to the base when I first arrived who
  • was assigned to show me around.
  • Ease my transition into the life at Langley Air Force Base.
  • But within about four months after I arrived,
  • he disappeared.
  • Come to find out he was at Wilford Medical Hall in Texas.
  • He had been having some pretty serious physical problems.
  • Doctors at Langley couldn't figure out what was going on.
  • Sent to Wilford Medical Hall in Texas, which was at the time
  • the largest medical facility in the Air Force.
  • Through the course of a series of tests,
  • they discovered he was HIV positive.
  • The focus of his experience there
  • shifted from how do we treat this illness
  • to how did he become infected.
  • They were very, very anxious to know.
  • This is 1986, still fairly new in the epidemic.
  • He admitted to his doctor finally,
  • after relentless questioning, that he had had sex with men.
  • I don't think even then said at the time
  • he was gay to his doctor, who was a major, but a doctor.
  • But that he had sex with men.
  • That's all they needed to know.
  • The doctor knew that Ben had a top secret security
  • clearance, called our commander, told the commander that Ben had
  • just acknowledged that he was homosexual
  • because he had sex with men.
  • Ben was, shortly after that, released from the hospital,
  • sent back to Langley where he spent about two to three summer
  • months in Norfolk, Virginia, or that area,
  • extremely, extremely humid in the summers, on a detail.
  • They were the guys who were working six days a week,
  • 12 hour shifts, tearing down old barracks.
  • He was a decorated non-commissioned officer.
  • Had been recognized numerous times
  • as a leader in our field of intelligence.
  • And none of that mattered when they found out he was gay.
  • And they did it to not just Ben, they
  • did it to a lot of guys that were administratively
  • discharged for being gay.
  • They made their life hell on the way out.
  • Ben Simps has subsequently died.
  • His diagnosis was well into his illness,
  • and it was just a couple years later he passed away
  • from full blown AIDS.
  • But I was concerned about what it could mean for my life
  • if I was found out.
  • But I wasn't afraid, because my whole social life
  • I lived with gay people.
  • My social life was the gay bars.
  • I naively thought that being out of uniform
  • and being off base and actually in a different city--
  • the base is in Hampton Roads, and Norfolk
  • is on the other side of the bridge tunnel.
  • And In fact, for a good part of that time, early on I
  • lived in an apartment just outside of base.
  • I eventually moved over to Norfolk.
  • So I was physically removed.
  • So I had my nine to five job in the military,
  • then I would go through the bridge tunnel, the Hampton
  • Roads bridge tunnel, over to Norfolk.
  • And that's where my gay life began after 5 o'clock.
  • Naively thought that.
  • I just got lucky that I didn't get caught.
  • Concerned, not afraid.
  • And that's the only time.
  • I've never been afraid of being gay.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: Well, thank you.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: You're welcome.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: It's been good.
  • And Kevin is going to listen to this.
  • Kevin Indivino, do you know Kevin?
  • BILL PRITCHARD: Oh yes, yeah.
  • EVELYN BAILEY: And if he decides that we
  • need to have an on camera interview,
  • we will let you know.
  • I don't know if we'll come down here.
  • BILL PRITCHARD: I'm trying to get back
  • to Rochester periodically.
  • I made a commitment to myself.
  • I'm the odd man out from my immediate family,
  • even when you count my cousins.
  • On my mother's side, actually even almost all of them
  • on my dad's side too, they all live there.
  • My parents are getting older, I have a niece and nephew there.
  • So I'm trying to get back.
  • So if Kevin chooses that we'd like to interview me on camera,
  • we can arrange it. (Recording ends)