Video Interview, Tom Petrillo, June 6, 2012
- UNKNOWN SPEAKER: You were proud of waging those battles
- you knew you wouldn't win.
- But didn't waging those battles start to chip away-- no
- one stands up and says, nothing changes.
- So is that-- to put that in a question,
- did waging those battles when you
- were (unintelligible) going towards winning the war,
- towards the end?
- TOM PETRILLO: Yes, I think they were helpful.
- They created an attitude.
- People began to realize that things they'd done in the past
- were going to be challenged.
- And I think that's the main reason.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: OK, I'm going to ask you the same question--
- UNKNOWN SPEAKER: (unintelligible).
- KEVIN INDOVINO: Because I think I know what he's going at.
- Talk to me about some of those little battles,
- knowing that maybe you don't have a good chance of winning,
- but the importance of being out there
- and trying, for the greater war.
- TOM PETRILLO: During the AIDS crisis,
- the twenty-one-year-old kid who graduated from college,
- just got his first apartment, moving out of town,
- out of his home, family home, and suddenly gets bounced out
- on his heels because the landlord doesn't want someone
- living in the apartment because he's gay, now,
- to that kid that was a very important battle we waged with
- a landlord.
- And, in the long run, he didn't get back into his apartment,
- but he knew that there were people out there who were
- willing to do battle for him.
- Hopefully, that helped his attitude.
- KEVIN INDOVINO: And not to mention maybe
- the attitude of the landlord.
- Good.
- Thank you.
- TOM PETRILLO: Alright.
- Thank you.
- Oops, you've got to take--