All language subtitles for Art.And.Pep.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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- Good morning.

- Good morning.

(water trickling)

Oh my God, my hair.

(both chuckling)

(eggs sizzling)

- I'm never able to make
omelets the way you do.

They're always impressive to me.

- You just throw 'em
in there and walk away.

- I know, I know, I
know, I know, I know.

I watch you do it.

They're simple and delicious,

and mine never
come out like that.

Today, lemme look and
see what we're doing,

or what I'm doing.

I know I always have to
write everything down,

and I'm jealous that you
remember what you're doing,

and I don't.

- It's all here.

(smooth rhythmic music)

(cars rumbling)

- When you look across
at this enormous place,

it's remarkable to think
that in 1982, we were...

- One storefront.

- ...we were one
storefront of all of this.

Every one of these
businesses we're looking at

came to the street after we did,

so we're suddenly
very, very old.

(both chuckling)

- Thanks.

(smooth rhythmic music)

(upbeat dance music)

(guests chattering)
(patrons shouting)

- Welcome to Sidetrack's

38th Annual Holiday Party!

(guests cheering)

On my left, a man who
has shared in my life

and made my life a wonder

for forty...

...forty-six years.

(guests laughing)

You know, when you get old
and can't count anymore,

that's when you need a
boyfriend to tell you.

As we approach a new decade,

take a moment to remember
the progress we've made,

take a moment to remember

that the only people
that we gay people

can really rely
on are each other.

(guests cheering)

(upbeat rhythmic music)

In the '70s, the vast majority
of gay people came to Chicago

from small towns, from other
parts of the Midwest largely,

and for the first time
in our lives were free.

- [Pepe] Everybody
was discovering the
freedom of being gay,

and sex was, like,
everywhere basically.

- [Victor Salvo] We were living
in that crucible of time -

kind of the post-Stonewall,
post-Harvey Milk -

and everything just seemed
to feel more electric.

I've always described it
as, "My generation of gay men

was the last generation
to actually have fun."

- [Art] In the typically
accepted sense of coming out,

that really happened
when I came to Chicago

for a sabbatical.

I had somebody whom I loved
and who loved me in college,

and I thought that I
was done for my life.

Didn't expect to
ever fall in love

in that way or more so again,

but we both knew that
I would always be gay

and he would not.

- [Tico Valle] Lakeview
in the early days

was very Hispanic/Latino,
and for many people,

Halsted Street was a
community, a street

that you didn't
want to venture down

because there were gangs,
there were people of color.

The neighborhood on Broadway
beginning at Diversey,

that's where a lot
of bars opened up.

In fact, that's where Art
and Pepe met at a local bar.

- [Pepe] I always had my eye
on this one particular bar

that was on Clark and
Surf called Shari's.

I got hired, and before I
knew it, I was a bartender.

This is gonna sound so corny,

but all I remember
the first night,

the first time I met
him was his smile.

He was a customer at the bar

and I was kinda
protective of him.

I always made sure that

if he was gonna go
home with somebody,

I wanted to make sure
that the person was okay.

You know, I always felt like
he was like the new kid in town

and he needed some guidance.

- I didn't know much but I
knew that whenever I saw him,

I was happy.

All the people at the bar
were all just crazy about him,

like you could just see it.

He was performing
just by being himself,

so I went back many nights
to his bar, ordered a beer,

and chatted with him.

He had a boyfriend named Arthur.

What are the odds?

And one night he said to me,

"Oh, by the way, I broke
up with Arthur today,"

and I let an appropriate
amount of time go by,

'bout a minute and a half,

and said, "So what're you
doing after work tonight?"

- [Pepe] I was about
to enjoy the '70s.

I was breaking up
with my situation

just because I wanted to be
in the middle of all this

celebration,

but

he was more important.

I thought, "If I don't do this,

what if this is the one?"

And it turned out he was.

He was the one.

- He came home
with me that night

to my student apartment in
Evanston and never left.

(upbeat music)

- I slowly started
moving in, you know.

Bring a few records.
(Pep chuckles)

- I couldn't wait to
get home from my classes

to our apartment and
run up those stairs.

- [Pepe] I could hear him.

He always started normally,
like, coming up the stairs.

We were on the third floor.

By the time he got
to the second floor,

he was moving a little faster.

By the time he got
to the third floor,

he was almost running.

That was always wonderful.

He always did that.

Sidetrack was one storefront.

That beam in the middle of
the room, that was a wall,

and from that wall to that
brick wall, that was it.

That was the space.

- [Art] We got around
15,000 square feet now,

having started around 800,

so we have grown a
bunch over the years.

How many expansions do you
think we've had over the years?

- At least five.

- At least.

You know, we have to
go back and count.

We should learn this offhand.

I'm thinking we're at
seven, but I'm not sure.

- And this is almost,

almost done.

- [Art] We're a couple
of weeks from opening.

We're in final inspections.

- [Pepe] Maybe three weeks.

I think every decision
we make involves more

than just the two of us.

- Indeed, and although away
from here in community stuff,

I'm the guy with the big mouth

who never says no to
going up on stage.

But actually in the business,
I'm the quieter one.

I'm less well-known by far
than Pepe which is rightly so,

and we're excited
about the space

but our customers don't
know much about it

so we're trying to be careful
not to sorta overpraise it

and overpromise and let it just
kinda be what it's gonna be,

and our customers
will let us know.

- I've been coming to
Sidetrack since 1982.

- I've been comin'
to Sidetrack now

going on maybe, like, 30 years.

- [Customer] Three
times a week sometimes.

- At least three,
four times a week.

- [Woman] Sidetrack is
a home away from home.

- [Customer] It's not
so much of a business.

It's more like family.

- People have often
traveled from the South Side

to come to Sidetrack,

and that only happens
because Art and Pep

understand the importance of
building an inclusive space.

- [Wyatt] If you have
never been to Sidetrack,

you should definitely
come to a theme night.

- [Both] There's so many.
(both laugh)

- [Wyatt] Beyonce
night, Lady Gaga night.

- Our personal
favorite is Dog Days...

- [Maggie] ...which was brave
I thought for Sidetrack

to have so many dogs
wandering around

their beautiful, beautiful
bar and hardwood floors.

- Dogs were all over
the place, which I like.

- [David] Musical Mondays.
- [Wyatt] Showtune Sundays.

- [Maggie] To hear
the interaction

of the yelling
back at the screen

in certain, you
know, songs or clips.

- Your favorite
probably is the napkins.

- [Guests] Bon voyage.
(people cheering)

- Napkins flying
all over the place.

- [Aimee] A lot of
these things are learned

from the guys and gals
that have been coming here

for so long, right?
That's how I learned it.

- [Tedd] We've had a
lot of celebrities here.

Cindy Lauper standing in line
with her money in her hand.

She's like, "I'm just
here to get my drink."

Bea Arthur, she was
promoting her one-woman show.

This one poor customer fumbling

trying to get a
picture of Bea...

It was just cute
to see Bea lose it

and just say, "Take
the fucking picture."

(Norbert chuckling)

- [Aimee] We talked it
over and we're like,

"Why not have our wedding here?"

- That was pretty incredible.

We had 150 family and friends.

- Our families were
experiencing a gay bar,

some of them for the first time.

- [Aimee] And then
once people saw

and we showed, you
know, people our photos,

they're like, "That's Sidetrack?

Oh my God, it looks amazing,
I would never think."

- Sidetrack is a long-standing
positive element

of the community,

and it's the only place I've
drank booze for 29 years.

(men chuckling)

- You're so graceful.

- Am I?

- [Cleve] Art and Pepe?

They're generous, and they're
kind, and they're funny,

and they're two of the
hardest working people

I've ever known.

- My favorite brother.
(people chuckling)

- Hi, Pepe.

- [Pepe] I grew up in
a small town in Cuba

in the eastern part of Cuba,

and I was very
spoiled as a child.

I always got my way somehow.

- Tio!
Look at the napkin, please.

Seriously?

- Oh, don't you want variety?

- No.

(woman vocalizing)

- [Pepe] They're using the
wrong oil for the wrong thing.

(woman speaking Spanish)

I'm gonna stay away from there.

My dad was a schoolteacher.

My mother was a housewife.

It was a very

easy, pleasant
childhood, you know.

I mean, we didn't have a lot
of money, but I never knew that.

Oh, God.

Ew, I'm naked.

- [Art] I love this one.

- [Pepe] I look
like Ricky Ricardo.

- I always knew that
he was different.

I always knew that he needed
me more than my other brother.

He was very intelligent.
He was very serious.

- Oh, my first communion.

- [Celia] First communion.

- [Art] Which-- they had
to sneak around because--

- [Pepe] My dad
wouldn't allow it.

- [Art] Your dad
would not allow it.

- [Celia] He was a Communist.

- [Art] So it made
Catholicism interesting

'cause it was
forbidden and secret.

- [Pepe] That's the only time
I liked it 'cause it was like,

I'm not supposed to.

- And it was four
o'clock in the morning

and my father was sleeping,
and my mother says,

"You have to go now."

- Oh geez.

Because I wanted to
have my first communion.

- [Pepe] We were
hiding from him.

- Because he didn't know.

- [Pepe] That was
fun to hide from him.

(Celia chuckling)

The revolution happened in 1959,

and by then my
parents were divorced.

They never had the
same political view.

My dad was extreme left,
he was a Communist,

and my mother was extreme right,

and my mother's obsession
was to get us out.

She didn't want
us, her children,

growing up in the
communist system.

We left the country.

- [Interviewer] Were you able
to say goodbye to your dad?

- No, I wrote him a letter.

I wrote him a letter, and his
wife-- he was remarried by then.

She told me--

not recently, but a few
years after the fact--

she told me that he
went into the bedroom

and didn't come
out for three days.

So that was tough.

I didn't see him
again for 17 years.

Look how stupid I look.

(everyone laughing)

- Oh, well, well, well.

- Pictures don't lie.

(everyone laughing)

- You're gonna pay for that.

- [Man] Can I take
your conehead with me?

'Cause I think that's
what I'm gonna be.

(people chattering)

Here's Tommy.

- [Art] It was a long
complicated process

how we ended up being
bar owners 'cause

we were the least
likely bar owners.

- [Pepe] The original
idea for Sidetrack

came from a friend of
ours, Rocco Dinverno.

Rocco live in San Francisco,

and he was familiar with a
bar called the Midnight Sun.

He was convinced that
something like that would work

in Chicago, and when I saw
this place, I was blown away.

Their programming
was all videos.

- [Art] In days
before video was--

- [Pepe] ...before
MTV, before anything.

He looked at me and said,
"You think you can do this?"

And I said, "Yeah."

What got into me?
But I always loved music.

I always loved movies.

- [Art] Rocco knew who
were the great bartenders

in our community,

none of whom would work for him,

but they would all work for Pep.

(upbeat music)

- This one here is the first
one we ever played at the bar,

the night we opened.

The song is "War
of the Worlds" by

Jeff Wayne.

(upbeat music)

You get the sound
effect, and you see the
thing going by, yeah.

It's fun, I'm telling
you, it's just fun.

The movie was available, and
it had some wonderful visuals

and the song was about
"War of the Worlds"

so it was a natural pairing.

- [Art] I went to a bank
two days before we opened

and borrowed enough money
to put up a big projector.

It was all shoe-stringed.

Smile.

- Hi.

(upbeat music)

* Nobody else here *

* Nobody like me *

- Let's rewind,
let's catch up here.

What? Talk to me.

Let's rewind this and catch up.

- [Pepe] We were told
by some people that

that will never fly.

This is not California. This
will never fly in Chicago,

So I thought it would
be a slow process,

and you know, we're gonna open

and then we're gonna
have to build this up.

It was busy from day one.

- [Victor Salvo] I had been
a regular at Sidetrack

from the night it opened,

literally from the
night it opened.

I know a lot of people say that
like they were at Woodstock.

I actually was there
the night it opened.

- [Owen Keehnen] Music
videos were one thing,

but these videos that I
saw here were like--

okay, this is the first
time I've seen videos

that are collected with
a queer sensibility.

And again, it was another
form of welcoming.

- [Pepe] Opening night
you couldn't get in,

so we'd run out of
beer by 10 o'clock.

I remember getting in
my car and going to

a bar on Lincoln
Avenue, Touché's,

and asking them for, you know--

I called them and said,
"Could I borrow some beer?"

They said, "Sure." So I filled
my car with cold beer

from Touché and took
it back to Sidetrack

and finished the night.

So even from day one,

we were depending on other
bars and other people.

It's always been a community
effort in many ways.

- [Tico] Sidetrack
was a postage stamp.

It was this one storefront,
but it was the go-to bar.

We all sat on cases of beer.

- I sat

on stacks

of these guys.

- [Art] We had no storage
so we stored all the beer

in the beer cases along one wall

and people sat on the beer cases

'cause we didn't have benches
in the very beginning.

- As you see, they're
durable 35 years later.

- [Pepe] We couldn't finish
the front of the bar.

We run out of money
to begin with.

- There was no sign, not
because we didn't want a sign,

because there were
too many other things.
We had to buy beer.

Beer was more
important than a sign.

As we were about to open--

it might even been
the first night--

somebody spray painted
"Fag Bar" on the door.

I'm not sure why we had
the good sense - but we did -

to leave it.

And so one way people knew

how to find the bar besides
counting a number of doors

from the corner of Roscoe
was to look for the door

that said "Fag Bar."

- Gay bars were the only
place we could socialize,

but it was also
extremely dangerous,

and then when we began to see

bars that were owned
and operated by gay
people themselves

with roots in the community

and a genuine concern
for the community,

that changed things profoundly.

(people cheering)

- Hey, get one of me!

- [Art] I remember being
called by a nightlife reporter

who wanted to write
an article about this

unheard-of secret bar.

I said, "I don't want
you to write an article."

- No, I never drink on the job.

I never do.

You're beautiful.

- [Art] "We're a gay bar,

and if you write an
article about us,

we will become a sideshow
for hip straight people,

and when they move
on, we'll be done.

If they come, they're welcome,

but I'm not interested in
attracting any straight people

to our business."

- [Announcer] You heard
of Women's Wear Daily,

this is what men wear nightly!

- [Art] The reporter
was very unhappy,

told me I was passing up the
opportunity of a lifetime.

I said, "I'm sorry, that's
just the way we see it.

We don't have much
that belongs to us,

but this bar belongs to us.

We're not letting it go."

- [Kim] All right.

- Welcome to Outspoken: LGBTQ

Storytelling.

- So we create community here,

so we have storytellers
who take the stage,

who share a little
bit of who they are.

We wanna honor their words.

- Part of the reason we started
Outspoken was to help us all

learn more about
our own history.

- [Kim] And I am really
honored and proud

to introduce Channyn
Lynne Parker.

(people cheering)
(Kim laughing)

- I knew that was coming.
That's why I paused.

- [Art] One of the thrills

for older folks like me
has been to watch the rise

of new, young members
of our community.

- I am a healer.

It's amazing how a head
massage can magically take away

the stress of a long work week.

For a young trans woman,

the beauty shop provided a
safe haven for my transition.

It's the continuation of
this monolithic narrative

that all trans people come from

this inherently traumatic
background and experience,

and when we continuously
project that narrative,

it really checkers the
views of other individuals

and has them see us
through a very narrow lens.

A year later,

I became the manager of
the Trans Life Project,

and today I am a program
director at Howard Brown Health

and a member of the
executive leadership team.

(people cheering)
Thank you.

It's not the end of
the story, y'all.

(people laughing)

One of the reasons
why I'm so happy to be

in the position that
I am in is because

it models possibility.

You know, it shifts
that narrative

or that lens of
service provision,

which again is good, to,

"Wow. I can be
administrative, right?

I can be an executive.
I can be in leadership."

So the next time
you are at a salon,

think of me and give the
shampoo assistant a big tip

because you just never
know what they may become.

Thank you all so
much for listening.

(people cheering)

I feel like a little kid
when I'm around him again,

and Art will go into one
of his many war stories.

He's just such a
wealth of information.

I can listen to
him talk forever.

Those are the things that
we all walk away from Art

being better for.

(birds chirping)

- [Sylvia Becker] I
wanted to tie knots

and learn how to go canoeing and

I got to do all that stuff.

Well, this guy
drowned three times.

- I was pulled out from
the bottom of the canal,

which is a pretty
filthy place anyway.

They brought me back,
resuscitated me.

I was out, I was
gone, and I woke up,

but now the lesson
that I had learned was,

you get back on the horse.

Well, you shouldn't, f--

You should learn how
to ride the horse

before you get on
the horse again so

I just I jumped back
in and drowned again,

and they had to
pull me out again.

- You finally earned
the badge, didn't you?

- No, I never did, I never did.

It kept me from
being an Eagle Scout.

I was never-- not a
good enough swimmer.

- Oh.

I remember fun things like when
he'd come home from college,

he came home and
wanted to cook for us,

but he did fried apples,
which I had never heard of.

I asked him, you know, "Where
did you learn about this?"

He said, "Well, they
serve it in the cafeteria

where I work."

And I said, "Well, did
they give you the recipe?

Did they show you
how to make it?"

And he said to me, "Sister,

if you wait for somebody to
teach you how to do things,

you will never learn anything,"

and I think that's how
he's lived his life.

(men laughing)

(soft music)
(birds chirping)

- [Art] Now, in the 1980s,

Chicago was not a hundred
percent welcoming.

Police didn't like gay people.

- [Owen Keehnen] The bar raids
in Chicago were going on.

- [Tracy Baim] And
who would get arrested

would be the gay bartenders.

- [Art] We had a situation.
We had a fellow in the bar

trying to cause a
fight with a pool cue.

I come from a blue-collar town.

I know about pool cues
and fights in pool halls.

This was not pretty.

Cop car comes by, and the
cop jumps out of his car,

sees me holding this guy, and
says, "What's going on here?"

And I said, "Well, this
fellow started a fight.

We're holding him, and
we called the police."

He cut through it
all and said, "So,

are you the fucking fag who
owns this fucking fag bar?"

I said, "I guess
that would be me."

He said, "We got too many
fags in this part of town

as it is. I'm gonna shut you
down and put you in jail."

They took me four
blocks up the street

to Addison and Halsted
and put me in jail.

- [Cleve] I think people
should be paying more attention

to the history of
bars in our community

because the bars are the
anchors of the gayborhoods,

and the gayborhoods
are vanishing.

- [Cameraman] How about
a little show, girls?

- What do you want to see?

- Whatever you wanna show.

- [Cleve] Now, many
people will tell you,

"Oh, it's going away because
we're so accepted,

we can live anywhere we want,"

and I think, "I would like to
have whatever you're smoking

because that is just not true."

- [Lori Lightfoot] Going up to
Northalsted in my 20s

and seeing people living
unabashedly, unapologetically,

a gay life was
eye-opening for me

because it gave me a sense
of what the possibilities

for my own life could be.

- [Cleve] It's when we live
in geographic proximity

to each other that we
have political power.

We can elect our own, and
we can defeat our enemies.

(people chanting)

- [Reporter] This is Chicago

in the time of the
COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a public health
crisis that's unprecedented

in modern history.

- I've never lived through
anything like this.

- [Reporter] The corner
bars and restaurants,

the city's cornerstones, they
all closed to the public today.

(metal door clanking)

- [Brad] Owning a
bar, managing a bar,

working in a bar is a
very social experience.

It's really tough.

So we've been trying to
create things that are

a substitute for what
we're able to do in person,

but not trying to recreate
what that exact experience

would be like because all
of these virtual experiences

that try to be a replica of
what you get in real life

don't do it for me.

Please follow us on
our social media pages.

We will throw up little
tidbits, little treats,

little memories to get
us through this time.

I know that nothing's gonna
compare to shouting back

at Evita on the big screen or
tossing a handful of napkins

in the air, but until we can
all get Sidetracked again,

take care of yourselves,
take care of each other.

For about five years, I worked
at getting my teaching degree

and worked here, and
I was sitting in the
back office one day

and Art came in,
and then he asked

where I saw myself going
with my teaching career,

and that is when the light
triggered in my head:

"Oh, what he's really
asking is something bigger,"

and he asked if I would
be interested in applying

for the job as general manager.

Very early when I worked
here as a bartender,

somebody said to me-- and
it really changed my life--

I was like bartending
with my shirt off

and like taking tips and like

everybody's having a great time,

and I said something
about becoming a teacher,

and he looked at me and
he goes, "Do not do that."

And he goes, "Why do
you wanna be a teacher?"

And I said...
(Brad murmuring)

He goes, "You think what you
do here is not important?

What you do here is important.

People need this.

People need an escape,
they need to have fun,

they need to have a good time.

What you do is important."

That statement was
even in my mind

while I was making
the decision to

jump from one
career to the next.

I think we're starting
to see some push back.

I think businesses are
getting tired of playing nice.

- [Art] Our citizens are not
immune to quarantine fatigue.

- [Brad] That's a good
phrase. "Quarantine fatigue."

- [Art] We know how
difficult it is to see one of,

if not the most, vibrant strips
in the city completely dead.

- I feel like this
whole year is lost,

business-wise and--

I'm hoping that
next year will be

a whole different experience,

but we're concentrating
on surviving right now.

- [Art] Our community,
when we went through AIDS,

we ended up

teaching the world

how to live

and love

in the time of plague,

and if we have to teach the
world those lessons again,

we'll do it.

- [Reporter] It
appeared a year ago

in New York's gay community,

then in the gay communities
in San Francisco

and Los Angeles.
No one knows why.

- Just like this
pandemic now is changing

a lot of people's perspectives

on what's important
and what's not,

I think AIDS did
that to us, you know,

in a major, major way.

- [Victor] Chicagoans,

I think there were
probably more cases

than we were
consciously aware of

because they weren't getting
the kind of newspaper coverage

that they were in New York,

and that was sort of
a double-edged sword

because we did feel
insulated against it.

- [Tracy Baim] At that point,
there were no drugs,

very little known
about transmission and
all sorts of things

that we were trying to just
grab onto as reporters,

as a community.

- [Tim] What was safe?
What was unsafe?

Should I trust this person?

Should I go home
with this person?

- [Dr. Blatt] There was
always that tension between

how to encourage people
to promote safer sex

and still figuring out what
that meant in those days,

without being anti-sex
after this whole excitement

for all of us about finally
being able to be ourselves

and sex was pretty
fundamental to that.

- [Person] Run hard, honey.

- ...serious or not.

- I don't know if it was
because we got ahead

or because the tension
wore off or-- Try whatever.

Let's just try to
keep whatever it was--

Each of us, think of whatever
it was we were doing

in those first few
innings. It was working.

We had at Sidetrack
national championship

and other softball teams
that traveled around

the country to tournaments.

We saw in bars, in San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston,

safe-sex materials,
which we had never seen.

None of that at all
was visible in Chicago.

I went to meet with
the executive director

of the sexually
transmitted disease clinic

and urged them to
take on this work.

They couldn't take it on.

I was deeply pissed
off and said to them,

"If not you, then who?"

I contacted the health
departments in Los Angeles,

San Francisco, and Houston.

They all gave us permission to
reprint all of the materials

which Sidetrack did,

and Sidetrack staff
distributed those materials

to bars in Chicago.

- [Victor Salvo] The
numbers began to pick up.

(soft music)

When I was 29,

I didn't know anybody that
was even HIV positive.

By the time I turned 30,
6 of my friends were dead.

- I was diagnosed with
HIV at Howard Brown

at age 24,

and so that was terrifying.

- [Greg Harris] My
doctor said, "Well, you

should probably wrap
up your affairs.

You've only got
six months left,"

so I went out and
spent all of my money

and a lot of a couple bank's
monies on my credit cards

figuring, "Oh, well,
what the hell?"

- [Pepe] We were
convinced we had it.

We went to the test,

and it came back that
we were both negative,

and the first reaction you
get is like, this elation.

It's like, this weight's been
lifted, and you feel like--

you feel so, so
incredibly lucky,

and then few minutes
later you realize

that you're the exception,

that most of your friends
are not going through that,

and then the guilt comes in.

- To go to a bar became a
very fraught experience.

- [Pepe] The few people
who were completely out

who told everyone
that they had it

would come into the bar
and could see the people

sort of moving away from them.

- Sometimes people come
in and meet a stranger

and 10 minutes later,
you see 'em leaving.

That, you're not seeing anymore.

- [Pepe] Well, there
was a lot of fear

at the beginning of the
pandemic and ignorance.

It was a hell of a combination

and within our own community,

it hit us both at the business
and in our personal lives.

Some of our closest,
closest, closest friends,

considering the number of
employees we had at the time,

I would say about 50%, gone.

- [Art] We were living
through a pandemic.

Nobody would help us.
No government support.

- I think many of you may be
surprised I'm here tonight.

There are some who
said I wouldn't come

for political reasons.

There are some who
say I'm out of touch

with the gay and
lesbian community.

- He set us up to expect
that he would follow through

on AIDS funding and
on appointing real,

openly gay and lesbian
people to boards.

He's not following through
on his commitments.

- Is he trying to say
that I'm not human

about people's
illness in this city?

Please, never do that
to anybody in this city.

You're really doing a
disservice to the entire city.

- [Speaker] Mr. Mayor,
it's not gonna help.

(people yelling)

[crowd] Shame, shame, shame!

- [Tico Valle] During
the AIDS epidemic,

people were being convicted,
losing their jobs,

starving because they didn't
have funding for food.

- We had a friend
who was quite ill.

He was a bartender at Sidetrack,

and I really wanted this
person to live in my apartment.

He was very sick at the
time and needed to move,

and the landlord at the
time was not understanding

because he wasn't working

and there was this
problem and that,

so I went down and got Art.

It took a lot of fighting
for Art and I to say,

"Look, Mr. Landlord,
don't worry about--

the bills will get paid,
the rent will get paid,

there's not a problem."

I mean, it was terrible.

- Here in Chicago,

we especially took
care of each other

because nobody else gave
a good goddamn about us.

The folks you saw today
are not people who normally

beat their fists on desks
and make a lot of noise,

but there's great
anger and frustration

that the real state of
things in our community

is simply not being
communicated to City Hall.

- [Art] When I got pulled
into this gay rights work,

the group of us who
came to be known as--

it was a moniker thrown
at us: the Gang of Four.

At this time, we were working
on passing an ordinance.

- [Tracy] The Gang of Four,
which was Laurie Dittman,

Jon-Henri Damski, Rick
Garcia, and Art Johnston,

they all four were pit
bulls for gay rights, right?

They all did it in
their own different way,

and somehow during
that window of time

where it was important
to work together,

they figured out the
magical mix to do that.

You had Laurie Dittman, who was
the quiet female of the group.

- [Art] You could not deter
Laurie from her chosen path

no matter what.

- And when they keep saying,
be good little queers,

be quiet, be patient, and
wait outside the door,

don't let them.

- Then you had Jon-Henri Damski,

a character unto himself
who was a writer,

just a really kooky
individual, I have to say.

He wrote for me on and off,

and I still couldn't
get a handle on him.

Really just "eccentric" is the
best word to describe him.

- [Art] He brought his
own lengthy background

and understanding of the
role of various aldermen.

- [Laura] Every
reporter loves a person

who gives you a good quote,

and Rick Garcia was
a quote factory.

He was just made for
television, made for journalism.

You wanted somebody to be
outrageous and be outraged,

you called up Rick.

So he was one of my go-to
sources for many years.

- [Art] Undoubtedly, Rick was
the most politically savvy

of any of us.

- This administration is
inconsiderate, it is outrageous,

and we no longer have
the appropriate channels

to go through.

This is what it's come to.

You name the day,
you name the time,

because all you do is
spew forth lies and filth.

- [Tracy] And then you have a
bar owner who was an educator.

- [Laura] Art was the motivator
and to some extent the money

and the power behind
the organization.

- [Art] My role in Gang of Four,

I got there because I proved
that I could organize.

There was a wonderful
idea to start a big rally

in Daley Plaza on the
Sunday before the first vote

in Chicago city council.

There had been
some disagreements

or sort of lack of ideas
on how to move forward,

and one of the ideas was to
ask all the bars to close.

That's when I became
involved with the work,

because I didn't think
that was a good idea.

In our history, whatever
progress we've made

has been funded, if funded
at all, by bar owners.

Why would we want to
piss off the only people

who've ever carried
water for our community

for all these years?

But what ended up happening
was my ideas about

how to get people to the
rally by having them go first

to the bars and having
bar owners pay for buses,

turned out to be
a very good idea,

although it was
one of those ideas

I swear I must have
pulled outta my ass

'cause I have no idea
where it came from.

I did feel that part of
my role was to continue

to remind folks that bars are an
important part of a community,

that Stonewall began with a bar.

I viewed my work as part
of the continuing line

of activist bar owners.

- [Anna DeShawn] What's
good, good people?

You know this is your
girl, Anna DeShawn,

right here on E3 Radio,

your number one stop for
queer radio done right,

and I am blessed to have the
two founders of Sidetrack

with me today, Art and Pep.

What's going on?

- It's great to be here.
It's great to be here.

- I'm glad that you
all are here with me.

I mean, you all started this--
let me get it right-- 1982?

- 1982.
- April 1982.

- I'm not gonna say
that I wasn't born yet,

but I think I was thought about.

I think that my
parents met. Okay.

- Go ahead.

(people laughing)

I'm an '80s baby.

And if there's anywhere
in Boystown, now known as

Northalsted, where I can feel
comfortable, it's at Sidetrack.

I think about Affinity...

- Yes.

- ...starting in 1995, and Irma,

who's our program
coordinator right now,

cleared out our
storage area, right,

and they were like, "I need
to organize this stuff."

So 25 years of stuff, and
they were going through

and they were finding
programs from 20 years ago

that was sponsored by Sidetrack.

- Wow.

- Right?
- Wow.

- And it was just like, wow.

1995, Sidetrack was
supporting Affinity

when other folks didn't
even want Affinity to exist.

- [Art] But thank you for what
you've done with Affinity.

- And we're sitting in Affinity
Community Services, right,

which has been around
now for 26 years

serving Black lesbians,
Black LGBTQ folks here.

The work that I do
here at Affinity,

it is totally social
justice driven,

totally community driven, and
so it speaks to that passion.

But my first love is media.

And let's talk about that.

Like Boystown, it's had
many racist incidents

over the years.
- Yes it has.

- Right?
- Yes, it has.

- Bars "stopping
playing hip hop"

means stop Black
folks from coming in.

Even within an LGBTQ community,

racism can still exist.

Xenophobia can still exist.

- One of the things that's
always strange in the world

is when you see
a group of people

who have been
discriminated against,

and then the
first thing you know,

they've turned around and
are discriminating back.

Come on folks, whoa, whoa.

- Yeah, how does that work?

- It clearly doesn't work.

* You are now turned in *
to higher frequencies *

* We do this frequently *

* Turn your radio station *
to E3 for that decency *

* Listen to... *

- [Anna] The radio station
actually started off

as a college radio network,

and eventually it
became E3 Radio.

This is everybody's
problem, right?

- I think it just goes
to show what a lot of us

Black LGBTQ folks experience.

I mean, we have to
deal with enough

in the broader society
from white people

across sexual orientation,
gender identity, but also...

- [Anna] We were talking like,

"What can we be doing
right now in this moment?"

In the midst of COVID,

in the midst of everything
that's happening,

social justice is really
important to all of us.

We're like, "We
can start a show."

We can do a show
every day 'cause

we just wanted to talk.

We just wanted to feel like
we were being a community,

and how can we activate our
own activism with the tools

and the gifts that we have?

Because if we don't
tell our stories,

who's gonna tell 'em

and then who's gonna tell
'em correctly, right?

What I wanna do is
build a media platform

that can employ people
where they feel safe,

can give people visibility,
and we can get some ownership

and some stake in this
thing and show value.

Y'all, more to come,
okay? So stay tuned.

This is Anna
DeShawn on E3 radio.

Everyone has a gift.

Everyone has a place
in the movement,

and in the work. And you
just do what you're good at.

Everything that you do every
day is part of your activism.

[people chanting] No
justice, no peace.

- [Art] The movement
for Black trans rights

is very close to our community.

There was a time when all
gay people were treated

the way Black trans
people are treated today,

and we as a people of
privilege need to remember

how we got here, and we
got here by protesting,

by working, by fighting.

The gay community understands
what over-policing is like.

Now if you look today

at the way white gay people
are treated by police,

you would not know that
it was ever any different.

There's no question
that the trans lives,

they're under such attack
from the president on down.

- [Pepe] They were there
from the beginning,

so there wouldn't be a
Stonewall without them.

They started the whole movement.

- [Art] So this march is
what gay pride in 2020

should look like.

I have never been prouder

of my community than I am today.

This is fuckin' remarkable.

We gotta have more of this.

(upbeat music)

[people chanting] Act up.
Fight back. Fight AIDS.

- [Tico Valle] The movement of
the AIDS epidemic in Chicago

really brought out the
best of our community.

- [Greg Harris] Back then,
it was just a group of

average people just
struggling every day

to do our best to
save our friends.

[people chanting] Act up.
Fight back. Fight AIDS.

- [Art] ACT UP was an
entirely new force.

Nobody kind of knew
what to do with them,

which is what they wanted,

and they did get many of us

more mainstream,
traditional lobbyists

to take off our suits and ties
and join them in the streets.

- The Chicago
Department of Health

says they don't have
to get information

to the gay and lesbian community

because we've done a good
job educating ourselves.

Well, don't you believe it!

- [Art] The most well-known
person in Chicago area

in ACT UP was Danny Sotomayor.

[people chanting] City
Hall says, "Get back."
We say, "Fight back!"

- [Danny] Gather there, block
off that street, do speeches.

Once that's over, we can
go back to this section,

do the circle again...

- [Art] Like so many folks,

I would've done anything
Danny asked me to do,

and when he asked us
to come to marches

and lie down on the street in
front of the police horses,

we gladly did it.

You either adored Danny, loved
him, nearly worshipped him,

or you hated his guts,

and there were plenty of
people who hated his guts

'cause he didn't
take any prisoners.

(people cheering)

- [Lori Cannon]
Boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Yikes. Your head.

- They got me a little bit
here, too, when they dropped me.

- Right now I would
say you're still

in shock over the arrest.

I'm concerned about your head.

- Yeah, I'm fine.

- I'm concerned
about your injuries.

- I'm fine.
- Okay, all right.

- [Art] Mayor Daley might
be speaking at some event,

he might be at some dinner.

Not far behind was
Danny and his banner.

Danny sensed that the mayor
was the perfect object

for personalizing their fight.

- [Reporter] Gay
activists have complained

Daley hasn't done enough
to fight the AIDS crisis

and hasn't appointed
gay and lesbians

to key City Hall positions.

- [Art] Some members of ACT UP

took it upon themselves to
protest at budget hearings.

- We would target Mayor Daley.

We'd find out his schedule,
we would follow him.

We'd-- like-- "You have to
increase the budget for AIDS.

This is unacceptable.
Our people are dying."

Finally, he just said, "Listen,
if you can find the money,

we're going to
increase the budget."

We did get a copy of the budget.

"Oh, here's $80,000 for rat
control in Lincoln Park.

Give us $25,000 of that."

You know, we thought at
least they could spend

as much on the queers as they
did on rats in Lincoln Park.

- In the midst of
all the horror,

there was life

in the affirming strength

of fighting back.

- [Greg Harris] You know,
Art and Pepe's skill at

mixing fun and serious business
was always really an art.

They would get people packed
into their club on the weekend,

but then they would
follow up and make sure

that they also took
political action.

- [Art] You will have an
opportunity through this week

to meet many other
lesbian and gay candidates

from around our country,

the kind of folks who
are gonna make sure

that lesbian and gay
rights become a reality
across our country.

(people clapping)

- [Tracy Baim] There
started to be a movement

for gay rights protections
through the law

in the early 1970s.

One of the Alderman in Chicago,
his name was Cliff Kelley,

was the first
person to introduce.

He was an African-American
South Side alderman.

He was one of the first really
to understand gay rights.

- Alderman Majerczyk, do I
understand you correctly

in effect to say that
laws exist already

in which if, a
homosexual person felt

that he or she were
discriminated against,

that they can go in
and get something done?

Is that your position?
- I believe so, yes.

- [Moderator] You
think that comes out of

the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights case?

And that's federal law.

- I'd like to know what
provisions those are.

- [Alderman Majerczyk]
Well, I'm not prepared

at this time to...

- That's because they
don't exist Alderman,

that's the whole problem.

- The ordinance was
introduced in 1974.

It languished there
until the '80s.

The first vote was in '86.

The chambers were packed.

The vote came up short.

- [Art] All of us in City
Hall were pretty depressed,

and somebody started singing.

And they were singing,

"We Are a Gentle, Angry People."

It's an old universal
hymn, and I tell you,

I hate that song.

We are not a gentle,
angry people.

We are an angry people, and
we're not gonna do kumbaya

and sit around and
hug each other.

We're going to get the work
done, the political work done,

and at that moment,
everything changed.

We put together a strategy.

We are going to talk
to regular Democrats,

independent Democrats,
Republicans.

Everybody is a
potential "yes" vote.

- What you are trying
to do is deprive

the broad mass of
Americans of the freedom

to make decisions regarding
their own private behavior

and their own associations on
the basis of their morality.

- In the state of Illinois, it
is perfectly legal right now,

right today, for a person
to be fired from a job

simply because that person's
perceived to be gay or lesbian.

It's our country, too.

- Chicago way of
politics is about muscle,

and it's about power, and it's
bringing people to your side.

Sometimes you have to
do some horse trading

and sometimes you have
to make some promises.

- [Rick] In talking
to a legislator, they
try to put us off.

Jon-Henri Damski would say,

"I have friends in
Bonaventure House.

They don't have the
time to put it off."

That really struck the
heart of legislators, like,

"Oh yeah, you'll
get around to it,

but I really can't do it
now before my election."

There are people
who may not live.

At least let them
die with dignity.

- [Reporter] Aldermen
supporting the ordinance said

it was a necessary extension
of the Civil Rights Law.

- It is the next logical
step for the protection

of our individual freedoms.

- [Reporter] The opponents
cited their religious beliefs.

- Homosexual activity is
known to be characterized by

the most dangerous of
sanitary practices,

the right to spread, infect--

Go ahead, animals.

- [Rick] We got criticism
from the progressive element

in the LGBTQ community.

They said, "Well, that's--
he would be a dirty vote."

Mother of God, any vote that
gets us to 26 is a good vote.

I don't care who they are.

- [Laura Washington] When you
bring in what would seem like

the least likely allies,
people pay attention

and it can be a
force for change.

- [Rick] I am a Roman Catholic,
and I have connections with

religious sisters and
brothers all over the country

and in the city.

- [Art] Rick understood
brilliantly that nuns

do not take their directives

from the local
Archbishop Cardinal.

They take theirs from the
leaders of their order,

usually in Rome.

- [Rick] I called sisters
that I knew here in Chicago

and we put together
the Catholic Strategy

because in Chicago - at that
point, very, very Catholic...

- [Art] When an
alderman would say,

"Oh, I can't vote for this.
I'm Catholic, you know,"

the nun would say,
"I'm Catholic, too."

And the nuns convinced many
an alderman to vote "yes"

on the Gay Rights
Ordinance, who otherwise

would've been opposed.

- [Reporter] This was the
third time the measure

was called up for a vote.

Two previous times
it was voted down.

- [Pepe] We were expecting the
whole thing to fail again.

- Then I heard that ACT UP
had plans for this meeting.

- [Pepe] I was sitting
next to Danny Sotomayor.

He had this plan that
the moment they said

that they didn't pass, we were
gonna jump over the railings

and we were going get on top
of the desk and the tables

and we were gonna create mayhem.

- [Rick] ACT UP
would say, you know,

"We want to throw slime
on the City Council."

That doesn't help.

We don't think that helps us.

And they'd say, "Yeah,
because you're mainstream,"

and I'm thinking, "God,
I'd be the first one

to lob slime at them."

- [Art] I made a deal with
ACT UP in which I said,

"Okay, folks, if
it doesn't pass,

we will join you in sliming
City Council and get arrested.

Pep was very happy
about this possibility.

He was always impatient
with traditional lobbying.

- I was really excited 'cause--
I was like, "Oh, yes!"

- [Art] The green sliming
of City Council chambers

did not occur because we won.

We won, we won, we won.

- The roll call is
28 "yea"s, 17 "nay"s.

The ordinance is adopted.

(people cheering)

- The mayoral candidates
have realized that

the lesbian and gay community
is a strong community,

is an important community,
and they had to deliver.

- [Art] We had done what we
had been told over and over

we could not do.

A week didn't go by that
some political reporter

wouldn't seek me
out or Rick and say,

"What are you guys doing?

This will never pass
here in Chicago.

You're not in Seattle
or San Francisco

or Los Angeles or New York."

So it was, needless
to say, even sweeter

when we had been told over
and over, it could not--

it would never pass.

Interesting side note
to show our own naïveté

is after we passed
the city ordinance,

we had a meeting where
we declared gay rights

a reality in Chicago,
and we publicly burned

the bylaws of our organization.

It wasn't long after
that when, of course,

the reality struck all of
us that gay rights work

was not complete.

We needed to do more.

- And we really hope to

work on different issues and
see just how much legislation

we get through the city council

that benefit gays and lesbians.

- Oh, that's great.

- We've only just begun.

- Rick really
pushed all of us to

become more formalized
as an organization.

The group and its name morphed
into Equality Illinois.

- So this, for a
statewide organization,

is where it all happens.

At Equality Illinois, when
we think about the policies

we have to pursue, like we
focus disproportionately

on schools, healthcare, and
criminal justice reform.

The other things we're
really focused on

is making sure that LGBTQ
people are at every table

where decisions about
our community are made.

There can't be places where
major decisions are made

about our society
or our community

where queer people
are not there.

I wanna start tonight
off on a personal note.

So this happened this year.

This is my daughter
Josephine, born in May.

Parenting

has made me

care more about the work
and less about work.

Now I'm doing work,

not just for me,

but to make sure that my
daughter gets to live in a world

where her family is
respected and affirmed.

Now I'm fighting for
someone that I love.

You wanna have a strawberry?

- Oh yeah, you can have one.

- Joey do.

So let me tell you
about our home.

The home I rock Joey in,

sheltered against the cold
Chicago winter nights.

The foundation, which grounds
us laid by Sylvia Rivera

and Marsha P. Johnson.

The floors upon which
we stand proudly

set by Danny Sotomayor, Rick
Garcia, and Vernita Gray.

The walls that hold up our
home against the January winds

erected by Tracy Baim,
Greg Harris, Mona Noriega,

and Mary Morton.

Every nail and plank
holding our home together

put in place by the work
of thousands of people,

too many to name.
And finally the door,

the door through which
we enter this home,

carved out by my dear friend
and mentor, Art Johnston.

There is nobody I
know in the world

who is as good at
channeling righteous anger

and soft compassion as Art.

- So please repeat after me.

To equality...

- [crowd] To equality...

- [Art] ...and full justice...
- [crowd] ...and full justice...

- [Art] ...for all.
- [crowd] ...for all.

- [Art] Cheers!

(metal door clanking)

(people chattering)

- When you were out
there-- no, I said, when

you were out there, you
should have called me.

(people chattering)

- [Woman] He's looking at nudes.

Nudes, you wanna see some nudes?

I don't have nudes.
This is a clean phone!

Whose nudes are those?

Everybody in Boystown.
This is the Rolodex.

- We've been closed for
almost exactly three months,

but it feels like a lot longer,

and we'll make it work.

And we don't know how
long this particular way

of doing things will
last, but it is a start.

- [Brad] Just a reminder that
we're gonna wear gloves.

We're gonna change our
gloves every 30 minutes.

Also, per city regulations,

we're supposed to
sanitize everything

at least once every two hours.

I would like us all
to use the phrase,

"Thank you for being
patient with us today."

(people chattering)

- [Brad] Welcome back.

So things are gonna be a
little bit different today.

You're gonna have
a cocktail server.

- Sure, thank you
guys for joining us.

- We missed it.

- [Calvin Drent] I don't
know that Sidetrack

is making money right
now, but it's really nice

to be open the little
bit that we can.

- You keep it.

- [Calvin] We open the
doors back up thinking

people will be clamoring
to come back to Sidetrack,

and there were some that were,

but a lot of people
are scared and broke.

It's cheaper to
have a drink at home

than it is to go out to
the bar and have a drink

so it's been tough even still.

- [Brad] It's not fun to walk by

and see your favorite
bartender stuck

behind a shield of Plexiglas,

and it's not fun to go
to a table of people

and tell them they need
to put their masks on

if they want to sing
along to the song,

and it's not fun to walk
up to somebody and be like,

"I'm sorry, you can't
approach a table of people

you don't know.

I keep a very happy face
when it's time to interact

with the staff and the public,
but it is pretty joyless.

- [Pepe] Sometimes I wonder
if we should stay open or not

until we can fully open.

Well, first of all, we don't
have a crowd on the floor

singing and reacting
to the videos.

I'm playing to an empty room
so that's a big difference.

You get a lot of
energy from the crowd,

you feed off the crowd, and
you cannot do that anymore.

Showtunes, showtunes, showtunes.
It's one of the things

that define Sidetrack.

* You can't stop the beat *

(upbeat music)

(crowd cheering)

Of all the things that
have to do with Sidetrack,

that's the one that I
feel the closest to.

- Do you need anything?

- No.
- Okay.

- I think I'll be fine.

- Okay, great.

- [Pepe] It's been imitated
all over the country.

I don't care where you go.

There's always been a bar that
does showtunes on Mondays.

And this is a log book

so I keep track of
everything that I play.

It's something that-- I cannot
play without doing this.

* Don't cry for me, Argentina *

* Let's do the time warp again *

We've been doing
showtunes since 1983.

Our slowest night
was Monday night.

I thought the idea of doing
a night, Monday night,

that would be
nothing but musicals.

It became this huge thing.

I had to learn really fast

'cause I didn't know
much about showtunes.

I mean, I've seen a few
musicals in my life,

but you know, I
wasn't really into it.

With time, the crowds
started reacting.

They like to sing along because
they all knew the lyrics.

It became like a sing
along kind of thing,

and then they started changing
the words of the songs,

and some were really funny.

* The ship's over there! *

* Fosse, Fosse, Fosse... *

I feel like I'm also keeping
some traditions alive.

I have people ask me, "Who
is that woman singing?"

I'm like, "That's Judy Garland."

Not everybody knows who she
is, especially youngsters.

* No day but today *

When you go to a
movie in a theater,

which is something else
we're not doing anymore,

when you leave the theater,

you have a connection
with the people around you

who also had the
same experience,

and that's what I think
happens every time

we do a showtune.

(water sloshing)

(metal clanging)

(people chattering)

- I appreciate your help.

- Okay. No problem.

(liquid sloshing)

- You're going to want to
put a lot of ice in it.

I don't have any celery so--

- Happy Sunday.
(glasses clink)

- Happy Sunday.

(people chattering)
(produce crunching)

Love your T-shirt.

- [Art] Tonight, we're having
dinner with some friends,

Jackie and Anne and
their son, David.

- I appreciate the
sommelier as well,

but the chef really
outdid himself.

- We were with Art
and Pep for dinner.

Two days later, I was
on a conference call

and I saw Pepe had called,
and I couldn't get the call,

but then I heard
Anne's phone ring

since we're all
working from home,

and I heard her say, "Oh
boy, I hope he's doing okay."

- [Pepe] He got up in
the middle of the night,

was beginning to get very
weak and having problems

with his balance,

and he fell and hit his
shoulder and part of his chest,

so we decided to go
to the emergency room.

They did test him for COVID-19,
and he came back positive

so they took him right
upstairs to a room,

and that's where
he is right now.

(machines beeping)

He's been through a lot.

I mean, he had a triple bypass.

He had throat cancer.

He beat all of those things.

He came out fine.

I miss him every morning,
I miss him every night,

and

I miss him constantly.

I don't know, I think
sometimes I think I'm in denial

or I'm stronger than I
think, or I don't know.

One of those.

Emotionally, it's
a rollercoaster.

I get sad, I get depressed,
I get angry, I'm scared.

It's a million
different feelings.

If anybody would beat
this disease, it's Art.

(leaves rustling)

I've never seen a
yellow ambulance before.

I'll get the door for you.

- Hello.

Hello, folks.

Hello, hey.

(people chattering)

(door clicking shut)

- I need some kind of a shirt
or a pullover or something.

- This should be fun.

(soft music)

(doors clattering)

- Margarita?

- I wish.

- You're supposed to
drink a lot of water.

The doctor told me that you're
not drinking enough water.

(soft music)

- I'm gonna try to
go up the stairs.

- [Pepe] You wanna do that now?

- Yes, I wanna try to
get this out of the way.

- All right.

- You want to sit
down for a minute

or do you wanna keep on going?

- I'm gonna sit down.

- Okay.

- [Art] We're starting
to be realists about--

we've actually begun to
think about those things

you must think about.

We've been together 47 years,
and this is nothing morbid.

It's just that, you know,

there are average
lifespans and all of this.

- You did it.

- [Art] I made him swear to me
that he would do some things

about funerals.

Not that I expect to die now.

Nothing like that, but--

the realization that, you know--

we need to be ready for
whatever comes in life.

- Serious now.

- Come on.

Get serious.

Get in bed.

Come here.

- I'm not going anywhere.

Not in your condition.

(men chuckling)

- I'm leaning on you,
which I've done forever,

and I'm still doing.

(crickets chirping)

- Down at the desk, I
couldn't even get your
whole last name out.

This is my brother.

- Art Johnston.

Nice to meet you.

- So in case you didn't
have enough reading,

I brought you some reading.

- Great.

- This week's...

- Okay, super.
- All the stuff.

So have you been
eating? What's going on?

- No, I started--

end of Wednesday,
Tuesday, I started to eat.

I couldn't eat Monday
or late Tuesday, and...

I can swallow now and stuff.

Get this, someone from the
health department showed up.

- [Art] Wow.

- [Danny] Yeah. To our
meeting. Because I mean,

I'm sure before they
didn't really understand

the significance of ACT UP.

Now they will, or they do,

and now the press
knows who we are

and it's no longer,
"ACT UP, who?

What's that?"

- [Art] I'd love to
talk to you sometime

about all those trade-offs.

I mean, obviously
it looks to me like

it's been a good trade-off.

Danny became very much
a part of our life.

Danny asked us if we could
take George, his first macaw.

- [Pepe] He was told that he
had to get rid of the bird

because of his immune
system being depressed.

He became part of our family.

He became my partner in crime.

I loved the bird.

- [Lori] After Danny died,

my good friend, Richie
Daley, approached me.

I go, "Yeah, what do you want?"

He said, "I always admired this
deep and special friendship

you had with Danny.

No matter what, you
were right there."

- Mayor Daley often said
he became a better mayor

because of Danny.

- [Lori] He did?
- And you.

He became an incredibly
strong and supportive person

for our community.

- [David Munar] In the '90s,

there definitely had
been some gains made,

but I think it really
wasn't until the mid 2000s

that I kind of realized,
"Oh, I am going to survive."

- [Greg Harris] Like
almost everyone else I
know died, and I didn't.

I do think about,
"Why us and not them?"

I have no idea why
some people lived

and most everyone else died.

- [Pepe] He's gotta
get used to...

- [Lori] And here we are, right
next to his partner, Ralph.

- [Art] My community
saved ourselves,

and all the things we learned
about how government operates

are the very reasons
why 20, 25 years later,

we have something
called gay marriage.

- [Brad] Marriage
now the law of the land.

- [Reporter] That was at
Sidetrack's in Boystown.

Its trailblazing
owner, Art Johnston:

- [Art] Being married, for a
gay person, was about as likely

as going for a walk on Mars.

Amongst all the articles
that were written about,

"Oh my God, gay marriage!
How fast this happened!"

So rarely did they mention that

we paid a very heavy price.

The tuition that we paid
to learn those lessons

about the way government works
was a price too much to pay.

Pepe,

I love you

not only for what you are,

but for what I am
when I am with you.

- Arthur, I love you not
only for what you are

making of yourself but
what you're making of me.

- I love you because
you have done more

than any creed could have
done to make me a good person.

- And I love you because you
have done more than any faith

could have done
to make me happy.

- You have done it
by being yourself.

- You have done it
by being yourself.

- And by the power vested
in me by the constitution

and the laws of the
state of Illinois,

it is my great honor and
delight to declare you

civil union partners and
partners in life for life.

(people cheering)

- Mazel tov!
- Mazel tov!

(people cheering)

(wind rustling)

- Stop pushing.

- No, it's fun. I
like pushing you.

(wind rustling)

(door clicking shut)

- [Doctor] So how
was the first shot?

- Fine, I didn't have any--

Minor, minor, minor something
around the injection area,

but it was really nothin'.

(supplies rustling)

- [Doctor] That was it.

- Thank you, felt nothing.
You have good hands.

- [Doctor] Beautiful.

Thank you.

- Excellent, thank
you very much.

We are on our way to a meeting

with two of our
representatives in Springfield,

one state rep and
one state senator.

Now we're going to
talk about the building

of a gay business area around

where this new Black
gay center will be.

The state rep is
named Lamont Robinson.

- How do we get
some synergy around

the Black LGBTQ
center in Bronzeville?

- The opportunity for
Black entrepreneurship,

I think there's the opportunity
here is gonna be something

like we've never seen before.

- Absolutely.

- [Art] The other person
is somebody I've known

for many years, Mike Simmons.

Mike was just appointed to an
open seat as a state Senator.

- Yep, we got 200 vaccines to

immigrants, Ethiopians,

indigenous people
from the Middle East

and then low-income
residents in the district
I represent, so Black...

Art Johnson is a mentor of mine.

Art and I met in 2009, so it
was an immediate friendship.

I just think Art is
a fountain of wisdom.

- In some ways it must be
easier not to have lobbyists

on you every moment of
the day, 'cause that's
what it always was.

I had the joy of talking to
various other community members

and many of whom are people
I've known for the years,

making points as to
why Mike would be great

and he's already proving himself
to be an amazing senator.

- One of the things I
worked on is I've worked on

an ordinance with a lot of
community stakeholders around

redoing the way that
the city interacts

with people in the
transgender community

when law enforcement
is doing their thing.

In my first four months
in the state senate,

I got six bills passed.

One of the bills
requires that the states

start collecting data for LGBTQ
people so that we can know,

for example, how the
coronavirus has affected

queer people that don't
have health insurance.

We had a colleague of mine
try to talk dog-whistle.

He referred to sex
education as perversion,

and I knew what he
was talking about

so I got up and I called him
out against the counsel of

some of my colleagues on the
Democratic side of the aisle

who wanted me to just sit
quiet because we had the votes.

I said, "I don't give a
damn if we have the votes."

This is the Senate for
the state of Illinois,

and I expect a certain degree
of decorum and respect.

I find the word "perversion"
to be deeply offensive

and would ask that it be
stricken from the record.

I'm not gonna sit here and
let him sell out my community

and talk about the
people I represent

who've never had a voice in
this chamber like we're animals.

I do feel like I
am a torchbearer

because I'm literally
next generation

standing on the shoulders
of these local giants,

people like Art Johnston
and the ACT UP coalition.

It's not enough
to have hashtags.

It's not enough to say,
"Black trans lives matter."

It's not enough to say,
"Black lives matter."

It's not enough to
say, "Queer magic."

We have to do something about
the things that we're seeing

in our community that
rob us of our humanity.

I also think it's
important for me to say

some of our queer folks are
creating something altogether

new, and I think it's exciting,

it is laced with liberation,
and it's intersectional,

and that is literally the thing

that is gonna save our society.

So you asked if I
am-- in this new role,

I seem like I'm brave and
unafraid and everything else.

I may be very good at hiding it.

(laughing)

- You've had a hell
of a past year.

COVID almost...

COVID almost killed you.

- Yeah.

That's true.

COVID did almost kill me.

It tried hard.

- [Brad] Eight months later?

- [Art] Eight months later,
still doing some follow up

with doctors a
couple days a week.

Messed up a lot of my insides.

A lot of my internal
organs got infected

and that's been
hard to deal with,

but I've got great doctors

so I was very fortunate,
and I made it through.

- In a word, pride is...

- Celebration.
- Celebration.

(Art and Pepe laughing)

Celebration.
- Celebration.

- [Interviewer] What has this
month been like for you guys?

Reopening of the city and during
pride month has to be huge.

- Yeah, you know, we thought
that it would take off slowly.

Oh, my Lord, no.

Within a couple of
days, we were so packed.

Better business
than we've ever had.

People in our community
and our friends

are so anxious to
get outta the house.

- Okay, so I need to see
proof of your vaccinations.

Great. Wonderful.

And I need to see
both of your IDs.

- [Brad] Chicago announced

that if a business could
guarantee that a space

was only filled with people
who were completely vaccinated,

that social
distancing guidelines

didn't need to be
followed anymore,

and so last night was our
first night of doing that.

A lot of people were
very emotional about it.

It just was the
first real, like,

"If Sidetrack can
be normal again,

the world can be normal again."

- You see the way people
are coming back in

and the way they're reacting.
That's a reminder

of what the bar means to people.

Like somebody said, "This
is where we come

to celebrate our victories..."

- [Todd] ...he wanted Barry
Manilow's "Welcome Home."

- [Pepe] "...or where
we come when something
horrible happens."

- Lionel loved deeply,

and lucky for me

was slow to anger and
willing to forgive.

He accepted people as they were

and he made them his friends.

We're here this
evening to celebrate

my husband, Lionel Smith.

Because we didn't have a test,

we can't say the
Lionel died of COVID,

but his body was
fighting something

and having a really hard time

and just couldn't go on anymore.

* Who can say if I've been *
changed for the better? *

* Because I knew you *

* I have been changed for good *

- To Lionel.

- [crowd] To Lionel.

- [Art] We all
suffered, we all lost,

and this will not be over
until we can really figure out

how to turn it all into
something of value,

and I don't know
what that is yet.

(soft music)

- [Pepe] I'm trying to
see if I recognize anyone.

I recognize her.

Olivia Newton-John. "Physical."

That was a big hit.

- [Art] Oh right,
of course it was.

- So you think that there
are more people alive today

than we think? Or...

- You know, it's
a great question.

I immediately recognize
the people have passed.

- Well, Johnny C.

- Johnny C., one of our best.

- He passed and...

Eddie Lechin, Steve White.

I mean, sitting here
watching the opening night,

1982, I just came
to the decision that

I'm thinking about
retiring, and...

- What?

- I mean, I'm-- from
the business, and...

I still want to be connected,

but I'm thinking once we
get over this pandemic

and once everything
goes back to normal,

that's what I like to wait for.

I don't know long
that's gonna take,

if it's gonna take a year,
maybe two.

But I would like to.

- So at this moment, when
you're thinking of retiring,

what does that mean?

- It means that I have
complete trust in the people

that we have running
the place, the business,

and I don't see any
need for me to be there,

which I think is a great thing.

- Wow, so are you
saying that you would

give up your VJ shifts?

- Um... (chuckles)

I may still do one
once in a while,

but I don't want it
to be a regular thing.

- But, um...

But, uh...

Wow, I've never thought
that there would come a time

when you actually
thought about...

- It's time.

(soft music)

- [Art] For us, being in love
and having a relationship

with each other over
all these years has been

the easiest thing
that's ever happened.

- Can I get some
help with buttons?

- Yeah.

- [Pepe] I always feel like
the two of us together,

we can do anything.

We can go against
something and win,

sickness or political
activism, whatever.

We always found a way.

We always found a way.

(soft music)

- [Art] Would there
be a Sidetrack without
our love story?

The answer is no.

(people cheering)

I don't think
there's any community

better at coping than
the gay community.

What we've been through
and what we've arisen from...

We struggle, we fight
back, we work hard,

we care for each other,
we are a community.

- [Mike Simmons] We
need to celebrate

the progress of the
queer community.

We need to celebrate that
there will be a second

and third and fourth queer
member of the state Senate

at some point in the
very near future.

I have no interest in
being the first and last.

- [Pepe] So the future
that we all envisioned

is here for a lot of people.

It's not perfect.

We still have a
lot of work to do.

We still have to
protect what we have,

which can be taken away.

So you can't completely relax.

- [Brian Johnson] We will always
have to do this work.

Like, we have to wake
up every single day

and demand our equality.

- [Anna DeShawn] I'm excited
about bringing along my friends

and all these people
I've met over the years

who are doing such amazing
work in the community

that folks need to know about,

who are living out their
own calls and passions

every single day.

- [Art] If there was one thing

that I would love
people to know,

I know that you can
make a difference.

You can make life better
for the people you love,

for the world, 'cause we all
deserve to have a better world

than the one we came into.

It can be done.
It can be done.

If we can do it, I guarantee
you, anybody can do it.

- I agree.

(Pepe laughing)

(soft music)

* It feels like *
something's passed you by *

* You're too worried, you're *
too worried to prioritize... *

- I'll tell you one
thing: that Pepe,

he's a very patient man.

(laughing)

Can you imagine being
married to Arthur Johnston?

I mean, my God, that man
is all over the place.

He's just, "Let's do
this, let's do this."

* You ain't gotta be lonely... *

- And I think I became
a much better legislator

from Art's bitchiness.

and it's nothing
I wouldn't say--

there's nothing here I
wouldn't say to his face.

Thank you for your
bitchiness, Art.

- Everybody's got a story
of when Art Johnston

was furious, and
there's also a joke

that, like, Art's the easiest
person to get to cry.

- He's been teased
for years about crying

at the drop of a hat.

The old joke used to be he'll
cry at an AT&T commercial.

- He is the biggest Wendy Weeper

of almost anybody that I know.

- I've probably witnessed
him cry as much as I've

cried in my lifetime.

* You built a house... *

- I'm a huge fan of Pepe.

- I adore Pepe.

- Pepe is just a
lovely human being.

- If you know him, you love him.

- He's just a wonderful soul.

- I feel Pep in a
way that, you know,

makes me feel like he's
like a real brother.

- Meeting Pepe Peña is like,
you know, meeting love.

- I've been accused of liking
everybody, which is not true.

- More than once
somebody has said,

"And then Pep yelled
at me," da, da, da, da.

And I go, "No, Pep has
never yelled in his life."

Like if Pep really yells, then
you are really in trouble.

- Talking badly about
somebody, I just don't do that

or try not to.

I'm sure I've done it,

but not to the people
you interviewed.

(laughing)

* But you gotta be strong *

* I know you think
there's something *

* but you waited too long... *

- I had applied for
my citizenship before,

and I got denied twice.

So the third time, Pepe
came up to me and said,

"Listen, if this doesn't go
the way we want it to go,

then we'll adopt you." And that
was when I was like, "Okay,

this is definitely
the place for me."

And I'll admit there
was a part of me,

I was like, "Well, I don't wanna
get my citizenship anymore.

I'd rather be adopted
by these two."

(upbeat music)