00:00I'm leaning on you, which I've done forever, and I'm still doing it.
00:16All I remember of the first time I met him was his smile.
00:20I let an appropriate amount of time go by, about a minute and a half, and said,
00:25So what are you doing after work tonight?
00:28Art and Pepe, they're generous, and they're kind, and they're funny,
00:32and they're two of the hardest-working people I've ever known.
00:35It was a long, complicated process how we ended up being bar owners,
00:39because we were the least likely bar owners.
00:42Sidetrack was a postage stamp, but it was the go-to bar.
00:46We were told by some people, this will never fly in Chicago.
00:49It became this huge thing.
00:52I've been coming to Sidetrack style, going on maybe like 30 years.
00:55The bar that they run is probably the best gay bar in the country.
01:08It hit us both at business and in our personal lives.
01:11Nobody would help us.
01:13By the time I turned 30, six of my friends were dead.
01:16No government support.
01:17The folks you saw today are not people who normally beat their fists on desks
01:20and make a lot of noise.
01:22But there's great anger and frustration.
01:24Art and Pepe would get people packed into their club,
01:27but then they would make sure that they also took political action.
01:30I threw myself entirely into the work for civil rights.
01:33I view our work as part of the continuing line of activists bar owners.
01:38Art Johnson is a mentor of mine.
01:40I do feel like I am a torchbearer standing on the shoulders of these local giants.
01:44Pepe is the glue that holds things together.
01:48Because you think what you do here is not important.
01:51What you do here is important.
01:53I think people should be paying more attention to the history of bars in our community
01:57because the bars are the anchors of the gayborhoods,
02:01and the gayborhoods are vanishing.
02:03We're concentrating on surviving right now.
02:05Our community ended up teaching the world how to live and love in the time of plague.
02:11And if we have to teach the world those lessons again, we'll do it.
02:16Our community owes so much to Art and Pep.
02:20They are the couple that everybody looks to.
02:22And if you see Art Johnson with Pepe Pena,
02:26all you see is their love and connection.
02:29I always feel like the two of us together, we can do anything.
02:32We struggle, we fight back, we work hard, we care for each other.
02:37We always found a way. We always found a way.
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