John Duran was there for all of it. He came out in the glitter of the 1970s: a midnight Rocky Horror at the Tiffany Theater, a fake ID at Studio One, and a job at Disneyland where he ended up dating Peter Pan. Then AIDS arrived, and between 1985 and 1995 he lost 104 friends.

In this Rearview Rendezvous conversation, recorded at the rainbow crosswalk at San Vicente and Santa Monica, the civil rights attorney and former West Hollywood mayor tells the whole arc: defending ACT UP protesters straight out of law school, the trial that ended with a judge ruling that every American has the right to call their congressman an idiot, the AB 101 veto march that grew from 35 people to 500 on that exact street, the night Bill Clinton promised a room of angry activists he would sign the bill, and the rainbow flags Duran raised on Santa Monica Boulevard for the people who have not made it to West Hollywood yet.

He also talks about the lesbians who led when gay men were dying, getting sober, finding his voice again in the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles after twenty years of silence, and why his next act is star maker instead of star. Raise a glass to Scott Fleenor at the end. We did.

Full video interview: https://youtu.be/ImYkNgfMZqA
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