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--