Tom talks about growing up in New York City and Connecticut, then moving to San Francisco and coming out. He remembers living in San Francisco at the beginning and height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and working for a gay civil rights organization there. He discusses his move to Charlottesville and his involvement in mental health support services and his peer recovery work. He talks about his advocacy work with the Recovery Advocacy Project and his personal history of activism. He discusses queer communities (or the lack thereof) in Staunton, Charlottesville, and Richmond.