The Stonewall Riots that took place in Greenwich Village during the late 60s were a historic sequence of events for the LGBTQ+ community. Stonewall is often noted as the beginning of the gay rights movement since it was the first time the community fought back police raids that would occur frequently in gay bars during this time.
On Sept. 25, “Stonewall” is set to be released in theaters. It is aiming to be a montage and historical film overall about the Stonewall Riots. Although gay cinema is sometimes too fixated on the past, it is still great to portray and expose key elements of the gay rights movement that a greater portion of people do not know about.
The trailer begins with a focus on Danny, the main character, and then ends with a focus on gay liberation and this idea of being the underdogs overcoming a large obstacle for an even bigger movement.
Yet, what if this portrayal is not done accurately? The 2 minute long trailer shows a suburban white male moving from a conservative area to New York City which is the cliche and overused plot for gay characters in cinema and television. Danny, the main character, is led by Jeremy Irvine. After being introduced to the gay scene in the big apple and undergoing the oppression that homosexuals would experience, the trailer portrayed him to clearly being the lead actor, but also the leader of the Stonewall Riots among other white men.
There is a lack of consistency on fighting injustice since the trailer follows Danny’s character development rather than the development of the riots. Clearly, this is not a documentary, but it should be. Historical films such like this one take out essential key qualities of certain events in history because there is no narration and it is moreover simply a story being told through the actions and dialogues of the characters presented.
In reality, the Stonewall Riots were not just a site of white gay men, but Latino and Black men as well. There were also transgender protesters during the riots, such as Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson, that were highlights of Stonewall, but not so much in the trailer.
There has been an online petition to boycott the film which now has over 24,000 signatures. The petition states, “Majority of characters casted are white actors, cis men play the role of trans women, and folks who began the riots do not seem to be credited with such revolutionary acts.”
Roland Emmerich, the director of the film, stated that he understood the concerns that the trailer might have brought up and that when the film finally comes to theaters that it will show and honor the real life activists.
If that is the case, then there will finally be some exposure of people of color in the gay rights movement. Because up until now it has been the gay white male struggle leading the perception of the movement when in fact there is just as many color involved as the rainbow.
I will not be purchasing a ticket to see this film, but I do encourage to those who are curious to know about the Stonewall Riots and all its glory to pick up a book about it or even just do some online research because there you would most likely inform yourself more in 2 pages than in the 2 hours of watching this film.