Video Interview, Bill Pritchard, October 20, 2012
- KEVIN INDOVINO: --is that the audience is not going
- to hear my questions to you.
- So in your response, kind of set up what I asked you.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Thank you.
- I'm glad you said that.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: If I'm like, "Tell me
- about the political climate in the 1990s Bill."
- Your answer would be, "You know, in the 1990s,
- the political climate was."
- BILL PRITCHARD: So in finished form,
- this will be kind of like there'll
- be thematic components of your video
- and there will be snippets from various people talking
- about the nineties, and then it will be me
- "blah, blah, blah, blah," and then Tim "blah, blah, blah."
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah, right.
- BILL PRITCHARD: OK, cool.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: But setting it up for the audience is key
- so they understand what the hell you're talking about.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Makes sense.
- CREW: I'm rolling, sir.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: You're rolling?
- OK, so first of all, I need you give me
- on camera the correct spelling of your first and last name
- and how you want to present it on screen.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Bill Pritchard, P-R-I-T-C-H-A-R-D.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.
- We title you.
- How should we title you?
- Former president of GAGV?
- Former city councilman?
- I mean, we'll probably put both actually.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Well I mean, if you want to put both--
- I don't know, because the council was more recent
- than the GAGV president.
- But you don't have to put both.
- That's an awful lot of--
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Well, I've done that with other people.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Well if you want to do that, then yeah, fine.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: We'll just put president
- of GAGV nineteen-whatever and then also city council
- member these years.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Sure, yeah.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK.
- So let's start there.
- I want to talk about your perception of what
- the 1990s were like here in Rochester, what we were facing,
- challenges socially and through the media, and some
- of the challenges that you particularly went through
- with the Gay Alliance.
- What was the fight?
- BILL PRITCHARD: In the nineties, it
- was the big fight for domestic partnership.
- I mean, I laugh about it now.
- Because when you think about how far our community has come--
- and just the other day, the high court in New York state
- ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act
- is unconstitutional.
- And who would have thought back in the early to mid-nineties
- that that kind of decision would have been rendered.
- We were fighting for domestic partnership, but also
- recognition within organizations, institutions,
- and political parties.
- I mean, we weren't San Francisco.
- We weren't New York City where just
- by virtue of a critical mass of gay men and lesbians
- they took over wings of the Democratic Party
- for the most part.
- We certainly had people involved here,
- but not to the not to the significant numbers
- that they had in those cities.
- So we were fighting for respect, fighting
- for a place at the table.
- Obviously, it was much easier within the Democratic Party
- than it was in the Republican Party at the time and probably
- still.
- But those were the kinds of things.
- It seems like a much simpler time then in some ways.
- But it really wasn't.
- Because even the gains that we thought we had made--
- and when I say thought we made, they were real.
- But there was still an undercurrent of concern
- and a lack of acceptance on the part of many,
- even some of our allies who we thought
- were our political and community allies.
- When push came to shove, they weren't
- quite there with as much as we thought they were.
- And those are were of the struggles
- that we faced in the nineties.
- They were growing pains.
- I think that's the best way you can characterize our political
- and community experience in the nineties, growing pains.
- We were given birth at Stonewall, but here
- in Rochester anyways, that birthing process--
- we were still toddlers until the 1980s
- when Tim Mains was elected as the first openly gay elected
- official in New York state.
- I would say, if you want to continue with the growing
- analogy, the nineties-- we were probably elementary school,
- middle school kids.
- And now, we're college graduates.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Sticking with this, also
- with the nineties, some of the things
- we were all starting to see in the media,
- there seemed to be all of the sudden almost a backlash
- against gays and lesbians in the country starting in 1992
- with Pat Buchanan's speech at the Republican Convention.
- And then we had the Rush Limbaugh's.
- And locally, we had Lonsberry.
- And you being actively involved with the Gay Alliance,
- talk to me about what we were facing particularly
- in the media.
- And how were you and particularly the Gay
- Alliance trying to combat that?
- BILL PRITCHARD: Oh, I can remember politically
- and then just overall in the community,
- we faced a great deal of backlash in the gay community
- from all sources.
- I think it was a delayed reaction, certainly
- in Rochester to a degree, a delayed reaction to the gains
- we made in the 1980s across the country,
- not just here in Rochester.
- And we started becoming more visible as a community,
- as individuals within our community
- started becoming more visible in holding positions of power
- and influence in the community.
- By 1992, I would say it all culminated
- in that very hateful, nasty, ugly Republican Convention,
- in Pat Buchanan's vitriol that he spewed,
- the hate that he spewed, he and others at that convention
- as the right as you recall.
- Pat Buchanan had posed a very serious challenge
- to then President George Herbert Walker Bush.
- And it was because the right, the far right,
- didn't think that the first President Bush was truly one
- of theirs, one of their own.
- While it was a very challenging period
- to live through-- that summer and certainly
- that convention late in the summer of '92,
- It was important for it to have happened.
- Because the backlash started to experience its own backlash.
- Because like-minded and kind-minded
- people began to realize that they had more in common
- with each other than with these individuals on the far right
- who weren't just against gays and lesbians
- but who were against people of other religions
- from them and skin color.
- So bringing it here to Rochester, I mean, of course,
- you had the campaign with Bill Clinton.
- And we organized-- I think for the most part our community
- really here in Rochester and, of course, around the country
- really fell behind Bill Clinton in that race.
- And in 1993, I can remember Sue Cowell and myself.
- And I think Rich Ognibene was involved too.
- We helped organize the march.
- I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.
- We had a victory party for Bill Clinton.
- And I think that was at Carpe Diem, we did actually.
- We had a celebration of Bill Clinton's inauguration
- at Carpe Diem.
- Mark Mackey helped organize that.
- And there a bunch of other people.
- The Gay Alliance was heavily involved, The Rochester Lesbian
- and Gay Political Caucus, which is no longer--
- but I was chair of that for four years--
- were very involved.
- What I was starting to get ahead of myself was later that year
- the March on Washington, the 1993 March on Washington.
- It was Sue Cowell and myself, and I
- think it was Rich Ognibene helped organize
- the local presence there.
- And we had rented a few buses, two or three buses, I remember.
- We had a good, solid contingent going down.
- We had Bill Clinton in the White House.
- Unfortunately, the gays in the military issue
- came out of the starting gate and it was fumbled badly.
- Now, I'm not one of those people who places
- all the blame on Bill Clinton.
- Obviously, he was there and because of his position
- he was involved and he shares blame.
- But that was done to really throw him off balance
- and to get him in political ways.
- So it was a euphoric time in '93.
- Again going on with the March on Washington,
- Bill Clinton was in the White House.
- We were living our own version of an '84 Morning
- Again in America with the Reagan campaign,
- or at least we weren't living it then.
- But that was our version in '93.
- Because in spite of Don't Ask, Don't Tell,
- we thought that things were going to be so much better.
- And they were to a degree.
- But I know what came out of some of the very
- strident political hatred directed
- at Bill Clinton for a number of reasons.
- It empowered others.
- The political differences of opinion
- that those had with Bill Clinton from the other party
- emboldened other people who had been waiting in the wings
- to take on the gay and lesbian political movement
- and really try to push us back--
- some of the very hateful demonstrations along the parade
- route, for example, some of the things that were being
- said in the media by Bob Lonsberry and Brother Wease.
- Brother Wease-- I think he was making some--
- most of us didn't think they were funny--
- gay comments.
- He was probably doing at the time--
- I think anyways in hindsight, he was doing it just for ratings.
- And I don't think he believed it personally.
- I also don't think Bob Lonsberry meant
- a lot of the stuff he said personally.
- I think they were, along with Howard Stern, those pioneers
- of the shock jocks who would say anything for ratings.
- And then in their personal lives in some cases--
- I'm not so sure about those two but I suspect--
- they weren't nearly as bad as they pretended to be on radio.
- I think the challenge today is that group of pioneers
- unfortunately--
- I'm not sure that they ever thought this would happen.
- You've got some people on in media today
- who I really think they believe what they say when I
- think of Savage and Glenn Beck.
- I really do believe that they embrace the hatred,
- and bigotry, and narrow mindedness
- that they say on the radio and television.
- But going back--
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Yeah, let me just pull you back.
- BILL PRITCHARD: I'm wandering, I'm sorry.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: I want to look at it more
- from our local approach--
- again, the Lonsberry stuff and the Brother Wease stuff.
- And you being on the Gay Alliance,
- talk to me about some of that hatred
- that we experienced here locally.
- And how did you work to again combat that?
- BILL PRITCHARD: Well see, the hatred that we experienced
- took many different forms.
- Some of it was very overt, and again at the gay parade
- each year where there would be these very vocal demonstrators
- holding up very nasty signs and saying some nasty things.
- There were those that felt--
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Let's take this back.
- Let me get this fly out of your face.
- BILL PRITCHARD: I mean, back in those days,
- I think programs like the Speakers Bureau
- for the Gay Alliance which in some ways
- was the beginning of this significant program at the Gay
- Alliance for gay youth, and the outreach,
- and the programs that are held in schools,
- and the gay in the workplace, and trying
- to get employers to be sensitive to gay and lesbian LGBT issues.
- That all started, I think, from the Gay Alliance
- and the programs we had had for years.
- I think in the nineties, as we were experiencing
- some of the backlash that to our successes of the eighties,
- the good news is that as a community we didn't back down.
- I know this sounds a bit cliche, but we walked out of the closet
- and we weren't going to let anybody push us back inside.
- You had in '93 Tim Mains ran for mayor for the first time.
- And there were certainly elements of homophobia in that.
- But it goes back to what I said earlier in that there were
- people who were with us, at least they said they were with
- us whether it was in the political context
- or the community context, but that even as late as '93--
- eight years after Tim had been elected to city council--
- and he was a very vocal member of city council.
- He wasn't a shrinking violet by any means--
- that you would have thought that there
- would have been an enhanced comfort
- level among some people having a gay mayor.
- But it was evident in '93 that there were people who--
- that wasn't that wasn't the reason for all the opposition
- that Tim faced in that race.
- But that was some of it.
- And it came from some corners of our community
- and Democratic Party that were a bit surprising.
- I think the Gay Alliance's early investments in its youth
- program and the equality in the workplace
- has paid dividends now.
- They didn't start in the nineties,
- but their growth started, their really getting out
- into the community and going beyond just the four
- walls of the Gay Alliance, and going to the straight community
- instead of asking the straight community to come
- to our gay pride celebration, coming to our Gay
- Alliance for a PFLAG meeting or some other kind of discussion
- group type of thing.
- We were going to them.
- We started going out to the community.
- And I think that's what--
- if you ask for one of the defining characteristics
- of the gay and lesbian movement in Rochester in the nineties,
- that's certainly one of them.
- That's when we truly began to branch out and go
- to the community instead of having them come to us.
- We escaped the closet between Stonewall
- and the early eighties, certainly the late seventies
- with Harvey Milk.
- We left the house in the nineties.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: One thing I want to get just a quick point
- from you is again leading up into the nineties
- and what we were trying to do in the nineties.
- We had the whole AIDS thing in the eighties.
- That really almost pushed us out of the closet.
- Any thoughts on the whole AIDS pandemic and crisis,
- and really coming to a climax in the nineties particularly
- here in Rochester.
- How'd that really push us out of the closet and really maybe--
- I hate to say it, but-- pave the way for us
- to become more politically involved.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Oh, absolutely, and I think across the country,
- but particularly here in Rochester.
- It goes back to my comment earlier about critical mass.
- We just don't have the numbers of gays and lesbians
- they have in New York, and San Francisco,
- and other large cities.
- So like other cities, but it was more important for us
- that we used the crisis that began to develop in the 1980s
- in dealing with AIDS--
- we used that in a myriad of ways.
- I think your product many closer together in a social context.
- But it also energized us politically.
- When you think about people, particularly in the nineties,
- I was away for five years.
- I went in the Air Force then I went
- to graduate school for a year.
- I left in the summer of 1985 and I didn't move back
- until the fall of 1990.
- I missed-- and I'm sorry that I did in many ways--
- I missed that period when the political movement in Rochester
- just caught fire.
- And it was because, significantly,
- not exclusively, but significantly,
- because of the coming together to fight
- for programs for people living with AIDS, for funding,
- for compassion.
- When you think about people who were involved in the nineties
- when I started getting involved, Sue Cowell, John Altieri,
- of course, Tim Mains had been on city council,
- and others like them.
- They had been involved politically earlier.
- Especially Sue Cowell, her presence was gained--
- Bill Valenti-- was through the AIDS crisis,
- and fighting it, and opening up AIDS Rochester
- on the second floor of the Tara's,
- which is where it began.
- And some good came out of it.
- Some good came out of the AIDS crisis.
- A lot of good things actually have come out
- of battling the AIDS crisis, coming together as a community,
- cutting our political teeth in ways
- that, I think, eventually would have happened.
- Because something else would have occurred and we would have
- had to respond to.
- But it was fortunate.
- Again you try to look for a silver lining everything
- if possible.
- And if you want to say anything, if this is the best way it,
- it's the the best way to put it, but if anything good came out
- of the AIDS crisis and the community's battle against it
- in the eighties was that we were prepared
- in the nineties as a community to fight back
- that backlash that did start to occur over
- our gains in the eighties.
- Had it not been for the experience
- that we had already begun to gain
- in our political experience, we may not
- have been prepared as well as we were
- as the nineties progressed.
- And it would have been a different outcome.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Let's move towards
- your political involvement and getting
- appointed to the city council.
- When you arrived on city council,
- can you talk to me a little bit about the atmosphere
- in terms of gay activism or legislation
- that needed to be dealt with?
- Because by the time you got on city council
- it was slightly different.
- There weren't a lot of gay issues
- that were being presented.
- I know there's a question in here somewhere.
- Let's take it back.
- You know what?
- Let's talk about Tim Mains.
- Let's first talk about Tim Mains being
- the first openly gay elected official in New York
- state how he paved the way for a lot of gay legislation,
- domestic partnerships obviously being probably the biggest.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Tim Mains, as we all
- know because it's now in the history books--
- Tim Mains was our first openly gay elected official
- in New York state and one of just a handful
- across the country.
- I mean, it was just a very different time then.
- And it was a very, very tough battle.
- Now, I had already left Rochester.
- I was already in the Air Force.
- And at that time, I was actually in Colorado in training school.
- But I've heard the stories again and again.
- And of course, the race that he barely won in 1985--
- and most certainly, there was a great deal
- of homophobia and resistance to Tim
- being an openly gay man serving on the city council.
- But he fought hard.
- And he a good group of people behind him.
- Sue Cowell was his campaign manager.
- And of course, they won.
- And then at that point in time, Tim, one of the first--
- by being there, and by setting an example,
- and by having a presence and a place at the table,
- he broke ground for everybody else in Rochester
- who came after him.
- And he frankly helped it make it a bit easier across New York
- state and other parts of the country.
- I'll say it again.
- He was one of a very small number of people
- across the country who were openly gay
- and in elected office.
- So his success in Rochester did reverberate
- in one degree or another across this country
- and certainly in New York state.
- By the time I came on board--
- and I was appointed in August of 2003--
- the big issues for the gay and lesbian community at that time
- had been addressed and addressed successfully.
- In 1994, I was working for Tim Mains
- actually, not in city council yet, that was about nine years
- to go, but domestic partnership.
- And as I said earlier, it almost makes you smile.
- Because nobody thinks that hardly of domestic partnership
- anymore because it's all about gay marriage.
- But it was a big thing then.
- And while we were several years behind the west coast
- for example in getting domestic partnership passed,
- it was a huge thing here in Rochester.
- And it wasn't easy, it wasn't that easy at all.
- And I can only imagine--
- well, I can imagine and I also know
- because I was with Tim every day during that period.
- I mean, I've mentioned about how the nineties were a period when
- we were learning that some of the people who'd been with us
- weren't quite with us as strongly as we thought,
- politically and in the community.
- He experienced that firsthand with his colleagues
- on city council and the people in the administration.
- There was there was a fair amount of resistance.
- For the public registration, I believe
- it was a 6-3 vote so that was better, either 6-3 or 7-2.
- But for conveying domestic partnership benefits
- to city employees, that was a 5-4 decision, it barely passed.
- And that hurt Tim.
- And frankly, it hurt the relationship
- with a couple of those members of city council
- who were part of the four with the gay community
- because it was a shocker.
- There was one councilman in particular
- who had just won for re-election in '93
- with the wholehearted support of the gay community.
- And then lo and behold, here we are a year later,
- less than a year later, and he's saying
- no to domestic partnerships for city employees.
- It was a shocker but we were getting used to it.
- Because it wasn't the first time we
- were shocked by someone we had thought
- was a colleague in arms, if you will.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Just for my own information, who was that?
- BILL PRITCHARD: Gary Muldoon.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Muldoon, right, OK.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Yeah, but there were people who were with us.
- There were people who were with us.
- And this is important to remember, I believe anyways.
- I mean, you had people like Tim all across this country
- pave the way for people like me who came into office years
- later.
- But we can never forget those people
- who were around the Tim Mains and the Harvey Milks.
- I mean, there was this fantastic movie about Harvey Milk
- and about his--
- it was about his political career, and of course
- right up to the very end.
- But what I believe that the film did
- a very good job of capturing was that Harvey Milk
- didn't do it in a vacuum.
- Harvey Milk had many supporters, gay and straight,
- and some very dedicated people on his team
- who were with him through those many unsuccessful bids
- for elected office.
- And I think it's important to remember
- the allies that Tim had in '94.
- Had it not been for Lois Geiss supporting
- domestic partnership, it would not have happened.
- Tim deserves the credit.
- Because Lois didn't bring the issue as a legislative issue.
- Tim brought it to the table and he forced the discussion.
- It was not necessarily the easiest conversation
- for his colleagues to have, even those who
- eventually would support it.
- But he deserves tremendous credit for that.
- But we cannot forget Lois Geiss.
- And there is a little known fact about the history
- of that whole period and how he eventually
- got both pieces of that domestic partner legislation,
- the public registry that anyone regardless of where they lived
- could come and participate in, and of course
- the extension of domestic partner benefits
- to city employees.
- And it's one of the little snippets of history.
- Again, it's not too well-known.
- Hopefully, it'll make it to the final cut here.
- But Lois Geiss, in her heart, she knew what was right.
- But nonetheless, she was still conflicted.
- Because it was a fairly new concept.
- And she wasn't sure and for reasons
- that only Lois will ever know.
- It certainly wasn't out of homophobia, but perhaps
- it was out of the lack of real--
- I mean, she'd worked with Tim, she knew other gay people.
- But for whatever reason or reasons,
- there was still this hesitancy.
- Lois reached out to Don Belack And it
- was because of their relationship
- through democratic politics dating back to the seventies.
- And it was in a very candid face-to-face conversation
- with Donald.
- It was that conversation that convinced Lois that this
- was the right thing to do.
- And with Lois came enough votes.
- If it hadn't been for Lois Geiss, it wouldn't have passed.
- But if it hadn't have been for Tim Mains bringing the issue up
- in the first place to the table, that would have never
- happened either.
- But I use that not to diminish any one person's involvement
- in the issue, but to rise up and shed light
- onto the many people around who did, who were there.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Part of this also is not only city council,
- but you also had to convince Mayor Johnson to sign off
- on it.
- I remember his speech after city council voted it in,
- him taking a long time with that speech
- until he finally said, "Oh yeah by the way, I will sign it."
- But tell me about the process of getting him on board with it.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Well, Mayor Johnson was a unique individual
- who, for all of his accomplishments--
- and there are many when he was head of the Urban League
- and he was with the CETA funding back in the seventies.
- I mean, without even having been involved then,
- I am sure that he caught a hell of a lot of flack
- for doing that from the community, particularly
- his own African American community.
- But Mayor Johnson was someone who didn't particularly
- embrace feedback and people reaching out and sharing
- their opinion with him about what he should do or might
- consider doing.
- He listened, perhaps not as significantly
- or in as great an occurrence as others might in elected office
- or have.
- So when I'm asked the question about how did we
- persuade Mayor Johnson, you'd have to ask him that.
- Because while there were conversations with him
- and there was certainly a ton of information shared with him,
- and I know he and Tim had conversations,
- but he and Tim also had a very tense relationship.
- So I often wonder that for every conversation that Tim
- had with Mayor Johnson trying to get him to support
- domestic partnership, at the end of some of those conversations
- might we have suffered at least a setback of a sort.
- Because they didn't have a very good relationship many times.
- But I think Mayor Johnson ultimately
- did what he felt was the right thing to do.
- And just all around the fringes, we
- did whatever we could to give him information and try
- to bend his ear when we could when he would listen.
- But it would be an exaggeration to say
- that there was a very extensive, effective lobbying
- effort with the mayor.
- He pretty much did what he wanted to do.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: So let's jump forward to 2003
- and you being appointed to city council.
- We already laid the groundwork for Tim
- laying some of the ground work.
- It was a different environment for you.
- The whole gay issue was not really
- much of an issue for you.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Well, when I came on board--
- when I was appointed-- and I make that distinction
- purposely.
- When I was appointed in 2003--
- first off, when you're in elected office
- or aspire to elected office, one of the best things
- can happen to you besides getting
- re-elected is to get appointed in the first place.
- It is the easiest way to get into elected office.
- It's also a humbling approach or way to get onto city council.
- Because you've been selected by your colleagues
- or who would become your colleagues.
- But I was appointed.
- And I was the second openly gay man--
- by virtue of that appointment, I became
- the second openly gay man to serve on city council.
- I challenge anyone to come up with one other example
- across the country where that happened,
- where it was a similar situation,
- it's a legislative body at a local level and the people
- who were empowered to do so knowingly
- appointed an additional openly gay man
- or lesbian to their body.
- I bet you couldn't find it.
- I bet you can't find an example.
- And that goes to the credit of the people who
- were around the table, who became
- my colleagues after that vote.
- It shows our community and how we
- had grown as a political community
- and as a social community, the community of Rochester,
- where we couldn't do that in 2003.
- But there's a flip side to that.
- Because I get on city council and there
- are still many gay men and lesbians
- who are looking to me, rightly so, as a champion
- of gay and lesbian rights.
- And of course, that's a no brainer.
- The challenge is there isn't a heck of a lot to fight for.
- Many of our accomplishments that were achievable at the time
- had been achieved.
- So I would go out to parties and hang out
- at the bars occasionally, and sometimes more
- than occasionally.
- People would approach me.
- And they'd say, "We've got to do this, we've got to do that."
- I would say, "Well, do what?
- Domestic partnership?
- Been there done that.
- The registry?
- Been there done that."
- And at the time of course, while we weren't necessarily
- on the cutting edge of deciding federal issues,
- there was still the gays in the military.
- And there was the growing disagreement of Don't Ask,
- Don't Tell.
- But I mean, there was little we could do about it.
- I mean, so that's why the "achievable." many
- of the issues facing our community
- had moved out of the ability of local government
- to act upon them.
- We could pass expressions of statements, resolutions,
- and whatnot.
- You could be vocal in the community.
- As a member of the city council of Rochester, New York,
- you could express support for civil unions or gay marriage.
- But it really didn't mean a whole lot other than just
- adding your voice.
- Of course, there's nothing that we
- can do about it legislatively.
- So that was a challenge.
- It was a challenge because you couldn't
- meet-- you know, I'd go before gay groups,
- gay and lesbian groups and they'd want a list.
- Right away, they'd want a list of things
- I had done legislatively for the gay and lesbian community.
- I was always very honest with them.
- I'd say, "Well, I'm always supportive obviously
- of our issues.
- But legislatively we've done about all
- that we can on our level."
- KEVIN INDOVINO: So let's jump forward to something
- we discussed about at the table about the gay community
- expecting you, because you're a gay man, to be completely
- supportive of any gay issue or completely supportive
- of any gay candidate, particularly Tim
- running for mayor.
- Talk to me about walking the tightrope there.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Well, as an openly gay man
- in a relationship, I was totally out.
- There was nobody who didn't know I was gay.
- And that's how I had decided to live my life.
- But I was more than just a gay man.
- And there were those in the gay community who
- at times expressed their disappointment that they
- didn't feel I was gay enough.
- And that comment or comments like
- it always made me shake my head, I'm not gay enough?
- I'm out, everyone knows I'm out.
- Well, you're not pushing enough gay issues.
- And then I would come back with my response to that.
- Well, the issues that we can act upon have been accomplished.
- So what would you like me to do, spin my wheels
- pushing issues that are only solvable at the federal level
- and focusing in on nothing that we can
- accomplish at the local level?
- Or what?
- What would you like me to do?
- That kind of challenge really came to a head
- when Tim decided to run for mayor in 2005.
- Actually, it was towards the end of 2004.
- There were rumors flying around that Tim was going to do it.
- Ironically, I had a meet and greet for Wade Norwood
- in my living room.
- You might have been there actually.
- And in my living room.
- It was a meet and greet Wade Norwood.
- And Tim was there.
- And it was October of 2004.
- He hadn't come out and announced for his candidacy.
- I don't know if he had decided, but he
- wanted to keep his cards close to his vest.
- I don't know.
- But then it was about a month or so after that.
- And we met at his house down on the lake.
- And he asked me for my support for his mayoral candidacy.
- And I had to look at him.
- And it was not a very comfortable conversation.
- And I said, "Tim, I'm supporting Wade Norwood.
- I've already given Wade my support."
- And what ensued was a tense conversation.
- Because Tim-- you don't run for public office
- and not have doubts about your ability to be successful
- and be the best person possible for the office you're seeking.
- And of course, Tim was certainly very convinced
- of his ability to do the very best job.
- If you're the best person, well, you should.
- If you don't think you're going to be
- the best person in the race, you shouldn't be running.
- So what ensued was a conversation
- about how he believed he would make a better mayor than Wade.
- And of course, there were vague rumors out there
- that the mayor who would end up becoming mayor, Mayor Duffy,
- was considering a run.
- So we had a conversation about both of them.
- And then of course at some point in the conversation--
- I can't if it was said directly or implied--
- come on, we're both gay.
- And you're going to not support someone who's openly
- gay and running for mayor and you're an openly gay elected
- official?
- How will the LGBT community view that?
- And again, I can't remember if it was direct.
- But if it wasn't direct, it was certainly implied.
- And my response was at the time and was subsequently
- because I was asked again and again, how could
- I not be supporting Tim Mains?
- And I said, "I'm gay and I'll always be gay,
- but I approach what I believe is to be for the best
- interest of this community.
- And I just happened to believe that there's
- somebody else in the race who would make a better mayor."
- I think Tim would make a good mayor.
- It's just there's somebody out there who I think
- would make a better mayor.
- And if I am to support somebody for an elected office
- simply because they're gay or lesbian,
- I would be untrue to my own beliefs.
- I held myself to that standard.
- And there were people who I would see out at various events
- and they didn't know me from the next person,
- but just because I was Bill Pritchard, openly
- gay member of city council, they thought they knew me.
- And they loved me.
- They wanted me to run--
- I'm not exaggerating.
- I had people come up to me and say, "In that race,
- why don't you run for mayor?
- You've got to run for Senate."
- Again and again, whatever, I mean I'm not
- even interested in any of that.
- But they were doing it because I was gay and they were gay.
- And so I would tell people, "I never want your support
- just because I'm gay."
- I said, "because if that's the case, I'm sorry
- but I am insulted.
- Because I'm so much more than a gay man.
- Everything I am is a gay man, but I'm
- much more than just a gay man.
- And that dismisses everything I've done or tried
- to do while I've been in office or that I
- say I'm going to do in office.
- So please don't just support me because I'm gay."
- And that is a huge difference--
- 2004, 2005, huge difference from what we were experiencing
- and what Tim experienced in 1985.
- That really was, for many people,
- I'm supporting Tim because he's gay and I am too.
- Well twenty years later, and it was very different.
- And we had grown as a community.
- And it wasn't enough to be gay.
- Because there were gay people who didn't support me because I
- was supporting Wade Norwood instead of Tim or instead
- of Mayor Duffy.
- And there were people who weren't supporting me
- not because I was gay--
- or they wouldn't support me just because I was gay,
- but they weren't supporting me because they
- didn't like my positions on some economic issues
- or other issues.
- But I never ever saw that.
- And I would tell other openly gay men or lesbians
- who were involved in politics or seeking office--
- I'd share with them.
- And I'd try to impart upon them, this is a sign of our success.
- We have grown as a community.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Right.
- Yeah, to bring that full circle here
- for me in regards to we are now at a point where,
- yeah, it's fine to run as an openly gay candidate.
- But we shouldn't be elected just because we're gay.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Absolutely.
- We are at a point today where we as individual men and women
- should not expect support from the LGBT community
- just because we're a member of that community.
- That just defies logic.
- It didn't in 1985 and in the seventies.
- But in my opinion, it does today.
- However, in the last couple of months
- with this presidential election between President
- Obama and Governor Romney, a little part of my approach
- does fall back to the seventies and eighties
- where there was this very strident you must support me
- because I'm gay approach.
- I have become very strident in my support of President Obama.
- And people say that the older you get, the more conservative
- you get.
- The older I get, the more liberal I'm getting.
- And I know that if my good friends Carol E. Conklin,
- and Sue Cowell, and others are watching this
- at some point in the future, they're going to just applaud.
- Because one thing I have been criticized
- for a bit in the past has been I'm a bit too conservative.
- I'm becoming more liberal as I get older.
- And you talk about defying logic and expecting people
- to vote for you just because they're gay
- and you're gay or lesbian--
- any gay man or lesbian who supports Governor Romney
- in this race, just--
- I shake my head and I just cannot understand it.
- Because yes, we've grown as a community.
- We're more than just LGBT people.
- But be very careful.
- Be very careful.
- Because while we are more than just LBGT people,
- at the end of the day, that's who we are.
- And when there are candidates out there
- who openly refuse to agree with or support gay marriage,
- gay adoption, who refuse to define
- a family as anything more than a man and a woman,
- be very careful.
- Because in my opinion, it's not a sign of growth
- as a community or growth politically
- as an individual, gay man or lesbian, if by example you say,
- "Well, I'm supporting the candidate who is not
- the best on gay issues, but I believe they're
- good for the country overall."
- And I look at them and I say, "OK,
- but where are you going to live if this person gets elected?"
- And they may or may not do a better job with the economy
- and grow more jobs.
- But if you can't get married if you can't adopt,
- if your family's in jeopardy because of the social policies
- that person puts in place, what good is a thriving economy
- going to do you?
- It almost feels like going back to the sixties and seventies
- and it exhilarates me.
- Because in some ways, we have come full circle.
- I was one of the people who would defend Joe Robach back
- in the day when, for those of us in the gay and lesbian
- community, I mean, civil unions was an acceptable alternative
- to gay marriage.
- Not for me now and not as a community.
- In some ways, we have begun to go back
- to some of our militant roots of the sixties and seventies.
- And I think that's a good thing.
- I'm actually smiling about it.
- Because I'm surprising myself.
- Because the older I get, the more liberal I get.
- Well, I moved to Delaware for crying out loud,
- talk about the bastion of liberalism.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Let's do a couple quick bytes.
- While you were on city council, we had an incident
- here in Rochester, the Goodman Street incident
- that blew up as controversy.
- Give me your take on that incident
- and more so some of the backlash that you got from some people
- for you not immediately going after the police.
- Just tell me the story of that incident
- and how the community reacted to it
- and also how you reacted to it.
- BILL PRITCHARD: The incident on Goodman Street,
- it was, I think, around 2006 maybe, roughly about
- that timeframe, maybe 2007.
- It was a mix of gay men and, I think, straight women.
- I think it was some gay men, maybe one or two straight men,
- and then straight women.
- They were coming back from one of the bars on Monroe Avenue,
- walking down Goodman street.
- And it was late in the morning.
- It was like 2:00 a.m.
- or I guess early in the morning.
- And they passed a home where there
- were some people who probably had also been out drinking,
- and partying, and whatnot.
- They were a bit inebriated, if I recall.
- And they made some gay slurs.
- The group passed them and then came back.
- They were mad.
- And I don't blame them.
- I mean, here you are walking down the street,
- and it's your neighborhood.
- I mean, they lived right down the street.
- And they're being called all sorts of names
- from this group on the front step of an apartment building.
- And they got angry.
- And they doubled back.
- And that's when the problem started.
- And I make a point of saying it that way and describing it.
- Because that is what happened.
- They doubled back.
- They went back to the scene.
- And that's where the trouble started.
- And that, for me, I think helps explain my subsequent reaction.
- Because the next day, it's all over the media.
- There was this gay bashing.
- And it was a bashing.
- I mean, these young people were beaten.
- They were clearly beaten by the individuals who had started
- all this with the comments.
- And there were at the time allegations
- that there may have been some physical altercations
- between the police on the scene and some of the individuals
- who had been the victims of this, initially
- the verbal assault.
- One of the things that I always believe and I
- don't think anybody could find an example
- that would prove otherwise--
- when I was in elected office, I always wanted the facts.
- Now, if something was as obvious as the nose on your face,
- I'm not naive and stupid, I would call it what it was.
- But that wasn't the case with this.
- There were conflicting stories of what the police did
- and what they said.
- There was the issue of the doubling back.
- And I can appreciate their anger and being incensed
- over being called names.
- But you've got to let that go.
- And you've got to think through these consequences.
- And had they continued to walk on their way
- home we wouldn't be sitting here talking about this right now.
- But they didn't and we are.
- And right away, there were people
- in the community who were calling for the resignation
- of those police officers.
- They were already labeling it a hate crime,
- the police were involved, da, da, da.
- And I stood up and I said, "No, I'm
- not going to automatically label those police with those names."
- I said, "There is an investigation
- that will be initiated.
- The facts will come out."
- I said, "Those police officers have every right to be innocent
- until proven guilty like any of the rest of us."
- It was a day or two after the incident.
- And the Gay Alliance held a town hall meeting
- at Downtown United Presbyterian Church.
- And I went.
- And I basically said that in front of a crowd.
- It was a lot of people there, at least one hundred if not more,
- a lot of people.
- And it was only days after the incident.
- So emotions were raw.
- Actually, they were probably even worse
- than they were the morning after.
- Because there had been a great deal of commentary
- in the media.
- And it was getting people's blood boiling.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Hold that thought for a second.
- Evelyn, you've got to--
- Evelyn?
- You've got to stop that.
- Because we can hear it over here.
- BILL PRITCHARD: And so I stood up in front of this crowd.
- Because they wanted to know what city government would
- do with the police department, what kind of direction
- we would provide, and what we would do.
- And what they wanted us to do--
- they wanted to push yes for an investigation.
- But they wanted something to happen with these police
- officers.
- And I stood up and I said, "No."
- I said, "I'm not going to push for that.
- There's going to be an investigation.
- We're all very concerned.
- I'm troubled by some of the comments that
- were made by police officers and were
- being repeated by the victims."
- I said, "I'm very concerned by what I'm hearing.
- But I want the facts."
- Boy, that didn't go over well with some people.
- And I was called a few names.
- There were a couple of people who
- stood up and got very emotional and in the process of being
- very emotional said some very nasty things to me, about me.
- But I held my ground.
- I understood where they were coming from,
- their pain, their frustration with the system,
- with the process.
- But I was not going to pile on.
- I wasn't going to do it.
- And to me, it didn't matter how much
- pressure I got from the gay community or anybody else.
- I wasn't going to do it.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: I'm going to jump all over here.
- First of all, because we're probably
- running out of time here.
- Gay men in the military before Don't Ask, Don't Tell--
- talk to me about that a little bit.
- Talk to me about being in the service.
- And how did you deal with it?
- BILL PRITCHARD: It's funny because gays in the military--
- gays have been around in the military for a very, very--
- probably back in George Washington's time
- and before, back in Caesar's time.
- So gay men and lesbians serving in the military
- was not a new phenomenon in the 1980s
- when I was in the military.
- In fact, we used to joke, but it was--
- for the most part it was pretty true--
- I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.
- I was actually at Langley Air Force Base
- which is right across the water from Norfolk, Virginia
- and the big Naval base there.
- And we would joke that if the government ever came through
- and kicked out every single gay man
- that there would be entire aircraft carrier groups that
- would be in dry dock.
- Because they would not have enough people
- to staff those ships.
- And it's true.
- When I was in the military, I lived off
- base for most of that time.
- And I had a nine to five job, I got lucky.
- It was the military.
- That was my military life.
- For most of the time I lived off base, I had gay roommates.
- So after five o'clock, I was immersed in the gay community,
- gay culture.
- We went to the gay bars.
- I had all gay friends.
- In fact, I gradually had very few straight friends,
- straight colleagues in the military.
- And we were fortunate.
- Because while there was the occasional raid from the Naval
- police services--
- I forget the name for it now--
- they would periodically sit out in the parking lots of gay bars
- and write down license plate numbers.
- They would watch who comes.
- Occasionally, they would bring in undercover people.
- And if they caught anybody in any demonstrative physical
- embraces or what have you, they wouldn't act inside the bar.
- But they would wait until people leave.
- And it was so obvious who were the military people
- and who weren't, our haircuts.
- It was just so obvious.
- I think what kept things flowing smoothly in the Norfolk area
- was because it had such a large Naval presence.
- About every six months, the gay male part of the community
- anyways changed.
- Because literally, there were that many people
- in the military who were gay.
- They'd go out in the Navy, would go out in aircraft carriers,
- go off for six months, go off for a year.
- So it was a never-ending change in the faces you saw out there.
- And I think it was because of that constant change that
- made things easier for us as a gay community
- and being in the military to survive.
- But I knew people who were kicked out for being gay.
- I had people I worked with-- and I
- was in Air Force Intelligence.
- And obviously, intelligence is a very sensitive field.
- I'll never forget there was a guy who was my sponsor when
- I got there.
- He was the one who was supposed to show me around the base
- and get me acclimated to everything so
- that my time at Langley would be successful as possible.
- He was gay.
- He was also a highly decorated non-commissioned officer
- in our field.
- He was very well respected.
- He was very good at what we did.
- He was also gay.
- And eventually, it was discovered
- that he was HIV positive.
- He was the first person to become
- HIV positive in tactical air command which was, at the time,
- one of three main branches of the Air Force.
- He was down at Wilford Hall in Texas.
- And he wouldn't admit that he was gay.
- And they were fascinated.
- And that's the only way to put it.
- They were fascinated by how he could have contracted HIV.
- Because think about it, this was 1986.
- There was still a lot that wasn't known about HIV,
- how it was transmitted, and so on and so forth.
- Well, when he finally broke down to his doctor
- and said he was gay--
- and this was after many weeks of ongoing tests, some of them
- painful, he admitted was gay.
- This was a Major in the Air Force, a physician.
- The doctor immediately called our wing commander
- to let him know.
- Because he saw in the records that Ben
- had a security clearance.
- Well, Ben was summarily discharged after that.
- Because now they knew, oh, he's gay.
- That's how he got HIV.
- I'm not exaggerating when I say, well, oh, well.
- What did he expect?
- That was the reaction.
- Ben comes back.
- He no longer has his security clearance.
- He can't work in our building.
- So therefore, while they're administratively
- discharging him from the Air Force,
- he spent approximately eight or ten weeks in a Norfolk summer--
- and if you have never lived in Norfolk, Virginia or any place
- like it, the humidity is unbearable in the summer.
- He was put on a base detail working six days a week,
- twelve on, twelve off, tearing down old barracks, no air
- conditioning, the dead of summer, the middle of the day.
- For someone with a compromised immune system
- who is already starting to experience the medical signs--
- there were already signs he was developing full blown AIDS.
- It didn't matter.
- That's how they treated him on the way
- out, a decorated, non-commissioned officer
- recognized as an expert in our field.
- And that's how he spent his final days
- as a member of the United States military.
- I'll never forget it.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Move forward a little bit,
- Don't Ask, Don't Tell--
- just your opinions on that and how that really became,
- I would think, a detriment to particular gay men
- and women in the military.
- BILL PRITCHARD: Well, Don't Ask, Don't Tell was--
- we were all-- and I still am-- in love with Bill Clinton.
- There's very little he could do wrong.
- So I say that to put into context the whole discussion
- that ensued and then the ultimate passage of Don't Ask,
- Don't Tell.
- For those of us who had served in the military--
- because I was out by then--
- I mean, we obviously wanted the ability for anybody
- who wanted to serve in the military
- to serve regardless of whether they were gay or straight.
- I think there were certainly elements of the gay and lesbian
- community who from the get go did not like Don't Ask,
- Don't Tell.
- I think there were those of us, including myself,
- I think in the majority, that we didn't fully
- appreciate the full ramifications of Don't
- Ask, Don't Tell at that time.
- Of course, that was '94 or '93, I'm sorry, '93.
- It took several years for the statistics
- to show that more people were kicked out of the military
- for being gay under Don't Ask, Don't
- Tell than in the previous period when you just
- had to just put up and shut up which is not too
- unlike Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
- And so at the time, it was an acceptable compromise.
- I came to reject that thought.
- But it goes back to what I said in an earlier comment about how
- in some ways the gay community, we have embraced--
- and certainly me as an individual--
- we've gone back and we've embraced
- an element of the radicalness and the militantness
- that embodied our movement in the sixties and seventies
- and early eighties.
- Because today, if it hadn't have been for the fact
- that those in the community like me who early on saw Don't Ask,
- Don't Tell as an acceptable compromise,
- if we hadn't ultimately joined our brothers and sisters who
- from day one saw it for what it was,
- a horrible piece of legislation, and therefore began
- to put significant pressure on the powerbrokers
- and certainly on the current president of the United States
- to get rid of it, it might not have happened.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Again jumping around here,
- I don't want to miss these thoughts.
- Let's go way back to 1992.
- I want to get a little soundbyte about ImageOut,
- not so much the demise of ImageOut
- or how it left Gay Alliance, but more the beginnings of it.
- You were on the board of the Gay Alliance at the time.
- And this idea of a film festival comes about.
- Just talk to me about that and talk to me
- about the significance of a city like Rochester
- to be able to put forth a gay and lesbian film festival.
- BILL PRITCHARD: There are many things, I think,
- in the nineties that contributed to an enhanced spirit
- in our community.
- And nobody can rattle off a list of those occurrences
- without mentioning the gay and lesbian film festival.
- You think it's easy.
- This was before Will and Grace.
- It was before Modern Family and the New Normal,
- and all those new television shows, and the movies.
- It was before all that.
- And I know that younger gay men and lesbians
- who may not even have been born in 1992,
- they just don't know it.
- Like we don't know what occurred in the 1920s or 1930s.
- We weren't around.
- It's hard to appreciate it.
- That's why you listen to history.
- You listen to people who were there.
- That's why this documentary is so, so important.
- You learn from history.
- And it was an empowering moment in time.
- And as a member of the Gay Alliance board of directors,
- I was proud that we were there.
- Because there had been a festival about one or two
- years before.
- It had happened, I think it was held at the old Radisson.
- And it was successful in its own right.
- But what Larry Champoux, and Susan Soleil, and David Emert
- were proposing in 1992 what to do
- and where to take what had occurred a couple of years ago
- and take it to not just the next level up but
- several levels from that was fascinating.
- It was a little scary.
- Because it was the unknown.
- But it was exhilarating, it was exciting,
- and it was empowering.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And again, what does
- that say about a community like Rochester?
- One of the things I want to get from you is, you know,
- we're Rochester, New York.
- We're not a big city.
- We're actually just a big town.
- But we have so much here in regards
- to gay activism and things like ImageOut
- and things like a youth center and the Gay
- Alliance in general, a lot of political clout
- from the gay community.
- What does that say about Rochester and who we are?
- BILL PRITCHARD: It says a great deal.
- Our successes over the years as a gay community
- and what we've been able to accomplish,
- we could not have accomplished if it was just
- gay men and lesbians out there doing it and fighting for it.
- There's no way.
- And I don't think anybody would disagree with that statement.
- It doesn't take away from anybody who
- was there who moved us along.
- But the fact of the matter is not only
- are our successes as an LGBT community signs of not just
- a strong LGBT community, but also
- a progressive, empowering straight community.
- Because just because just as quickly
- as people over the years--
- Bill Johnson with CETA funding in the seventies, Lois Geiss
- and her embracing of domestic partnership in the nineties,
- and everybody in between, before, and since
- from the straight community, political or otherwise,
- who became allies of ours--
- if it hadn't been for them, we would not
- have been nearly as successful as we were as a community.
- And I am very proud.
- I no longer live in Rochester.
- But I am very proud to have been born,
- and raised, and lived here most of my life.
- Ours is a community that has been certainly
- by comparison progressive.
- Certainly willing to try new ideas.
- Ironically, that's always been more so
- in the social and community side of things
- than in the economic and other kinds of things.
- But certainly when it comes to social issues,
- we've been very--
- I mean, look at the pillars of our community history--
- I mean, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass--
- I mean, we were getting it as a community long before any of us
- and our grandparents were born.
- So it isn't a stretch, not really,
- when you can say that some of the successes, maybe
- many of the successes, we've enjoyed over the last twenty
- years or so you can tie right back to people
- like Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass.
- Because in an era when it was much, much
- more dangerous to stand out and be different from the crowd,
- they did.
- But they did it, again comparatively speaking,
- in a riskier climate.
- But it also says something about Rochester even of that day.
- The origins of the progressive community
- that we've enjoyed for a very, very long time, that we
- have witnesses individuals, that didn't start up in a vacuum.
- That has its origins back to the days of Susan B. and Frederick
- Douglass.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Just a couple more quick things here.
- Your thoughts on-- you mentioned this at the table.
- It took a while for the gay community
- to come together as a force in this community.
- We weren't always so accepting.
- There's always been this faction of the lesbians being
- a little bit outside of the gay activist movement.
- We didn't completely embrace the drag queens right away.
- There's a lot of people in our community
- that didn't want them representing us.
- Can you just talk to me a little bit about that
- and how eventually we did eventually work together?
- BILL PRITCHARD: It's funny.
- Because we as a community have sometimes been our own worst
- enemy within.
- I can remember conversations after I moved back to Rochester
- in the early nineties.
- And there were people who would just
- shake if they heard that the drag
- queens were going to be at some kind
- of political demonstration.
- Oh, we can't have that.
- They send the wrong image.
- People will think we're all drag queens, and oh my God.
- And I would say, wait a minute.
- I mean, if it hadn't have been for the drag queens
- at Stonewall, we probably wouldn't
- be standing here today.
- But nonetheless-- and the racism,
- and the sexism, and the classism, and you
- still have all of that.
- I don't think it's as bad as it was.
- But we're always going to have it.
- Because it's exists in the broader community
- and it always will.
- You just hope that it will get better.
- And when I say better in this case, it lessens.
- But for a long time you had, and I
- think you still have (unintelligible) of classism
- based on socioeconomic status.
- We still have it.
- And it isn't just here.
- I see it in Delaware.
- But up until the last few years, those Empire State Pride Agenda
- dinners were pretty white and pretty male.
- And I'm not talking about twenty years ago.
- I'm talking about two years ago, three years ago.
- It's gotten better.
- It could get a lot better.
- It's unfortunate that we don't, as gay men, and lesbians,
- and bisexuals, and transgendered people
- that we can't set aside the prejudices that
- exist in the broader community and embrace each other more
- wholly and completely get rid of that divisiveness.
- Because I think we've proven that over the last few years
- we have pushed that back to a degree.
- And I think we've proven how, by doing that, you
- can be more successful.
- I won't mention any names.
- But I know people today who would think nothing of inviting
- and have actually invited drag queens to participate
- in political events who twenty years ago in some
- of those conversations I mentioned
- had happened twenty years ago, they
- would have fallen all over themselves
- in trying to avoid that situation.
- They've grown.
- But it goes back to this evolution,
- I think, we've had in the community going back
- to a degree our militant roots and not accepting, no longer
- saying, well, civil unions, it's an acceptable alternative
- to gay marriage.
- Don't Ask, Don't Tell, it's an acceptable alternative
- to what existed before.
- No, it's not acceptable anymore.
- Now twenty years ago, I would have been called a radical.
- Today, I think I'm just expressing in general terms
- the feeling of the gay community.
- And the people who are still out there critical of what
- they term are the fringe elements of our community,
- they're now the fringe.
- They're now the ones who are on the outside looking in.
- And I like that.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: So to kind of wrap it
- all up to where we are today, we've come a long way.
- We got gay marriage passed in New York.
- We've still got to get rid of DOMA, which
- hopefully will happen soon.
- But that's not the end.
- We've still got a lot of challenges ahead of us.
- What's your thoughts on that?
- BILL PRITCHARD: Well, my first thought
- is that history about the challenges ahead of us
- as a community-- because we have great successes.
- And I really believe particularly
- with these most recent court challenges or court decisions,
- one in New York saying that the Defense of Marriage Act
- is unconstitutional--
- I think we are very close more likely
- from a legislative standpoint of having
- equal marriage be the law of the land than we have ever been.
- But I'm also a student of history.
- I'm a teacher of history.
- And if you want to predict the future,
- one of the first places you want to look is the past.
- Because history repeats itself.
- And while we have enjoyed many successes
- and I think we have successes to come,
- I also believe that there will always
- be an element in our society that
- wants to resist that, that hates that, that doesn't understand
- that.
- And we'll go back to what we experienced, perhaps,
- in the nineties, that backlash to our success.
- So we can't rest on our laurels.
- And we can't think that the world will forevermore
- be an embracing, perfect one for LGBT families and individuals.
- The wrong person elected as President of the United States
- could really set things back.
- So I have great hope for the future,
- while still concern for it based on history.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And that's a wrap.
- I'll get this microphone off you and you'll be good to go.