Controversy over new 'Stonewall' film -out Sept. 25, 2015

[Hauser 1,262]

It looks like trash, why can't studios fund accurate and god quality films, the producers/directors/writers/actors are all there.

[Prometheus 1,494]

Whitewashing History: Stonewall Movie Leaves Out Trans Women and Black Drag Queens Who Started The Movement

 

Watching history repeat itself before your very eyes can be a bit taxing.  Just like how they are often relegated to the sidelines of the movement they helped start, in the new movie Stonewall, Trans Women and Drag queens and persons of color are being all but written out of history. 

Quick history lesson: The Stonewall riots were a series of violent protests against the police by the LGBT+ community in New York in 1969.  Many cite the Stonewall Riots as the single most important event that led to the LGBT+ liberation movement in America, and the foundation upon which all modern LGBT+ rights are founded.

 With the release of the trailer, there is some level of controversy regarding director Roland Emmerich’s version of historical events.

The trailer, claims to be a ‘true story’,  and tells the audience that a young, white, cisgender, gay man was the first to throw a brick and start the Stonewall Riots.  In reality, hundreds of eye witness accounts and documented evidence have said the riots were started by black drag queens and transgender women.

The two people most credited with sparking the riots and paving the way for modern LGBT+ rights were Marsha P.Johnson, a black transwoman who performed as a drag queen, and Silvia Rivera, puerto rican transgender woman. These two people, who are universally recognized as starting the riots, take a back seat in to the "pretty white boy" who comes to save the day.

Marsha was the one who ‘really started it’ on the night of the riots, according to witnesses in David Carter’s Stonewall biography.

She went to the Stonewall Inn that night for her 25th birthday, and as a stalwart of the bar, was a focus of much of the celebrations. Like many trans women at the time, she performed as a drag queen.

During the riots, Marsha was observed dropping a heavy weight onto a police car – a powerful moment in the initial resistance.

Following the protests, Marsha took a pioneering role in the movement. She demonstrated on Wall Street in the 1980s against the extreme prices of AIDS d--gs and was a mother figure to many LGBTI youths to come her way.

Sylvia was a 17-year-old Puerto Rican drag queen and trans activist on the night of the riot, persuaded by Tammy to attend.

According to one biography, she was in the crowd that gathered outside of the bar. She is believed to have yelled: ‘It’s the revolution!’

She is cited with being one of the first bystanders to throw a bottle.

Sylvia was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance, as well as co-founding the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries with her close friend Marsha P. Johnson. She dedicated her life to helping homeless young drag queens and trans women.

Other players included Allyson Allante, who was just 14 when she was arrested, as well as Diane Kearney, Zazu Nova, Miss Peaches and more.

Honestly this film is a slap in the face to the people who took part in the riots, who fought in the streets for your right to be treated like a human being.  It’s an insult to the LGBT community, to trans people, to drag queens, to women and people of color.  Hollywood has once again taken our moment of major historical significance and told us that the only way people will care is if a white man is the hero,  and that the only way change really happens is if a white man fights for it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7vmeZx2TPaQ

Source: http://www.aazah.com/articles/whitewashing-history-stonewall-movie-leaves-out-trans-women-and-black-drag-queens-who#.VcPK1j-COJL

 

[gagzus 16,004]

to be fair we knew about this since the film was announced along with the cast a while ago but yes they're trying to make it appeal to mainstream media that don't care for gays, trans men & women or black people tbh

[untitled 2,755]

I'm so pissed. Why did they have to make this film that's based on true stories, if they're just going to ignore all the facts

[SEVDALIZA 1,274]

I honestly don't even know how to react to this, it's so disrespectful to overlook the great actions of women, black and trans people to glorify white cisgendered men. The fact that it says it's based on a true story makes it all worse, cause people are going to watch this and grab on to the idea that a white cis kid started this. Can people stop erasing history like this? This is not ok.

[aaronyoji 2,054]

i mean of course! if you're white and attractive, being gay is hardly a set back anymore. for instance this really popular gay couple on youtube, i cant remember their names, but they basically just document their privileged happy lives, both white, both extremely attractive, and both fit in well. people like that dont represent the gay experience at all, the gay struggle, the alienation, but are somehow our representatives to the rest of pop culture. there's so much internalized racism and homophobia in the gay community as it is, this just progresses it. 

[Sizzily 14,543]

The best comment on the trailer: "The Fictional White Twink that Started a Riot" 

[Prometheus 1,494]

i mean of course! if you're white and attractive, being gay is hardly a set back anymore. for instance this really popular gay couple on youtube, i cant remember their names, but they basically just document their privileged happy lives, both white, both extremely attractive, and both fit in well. people like that dont represent the gay experience at all, the gay struggle, the alienation, but are somehow our representatives to the rest of pop culture. there's so much internalized racism and homophobia in the gay community as it is, this just progresses it. 

I mean I wouldn't say that they have it completely easy. I know many white, attractive, cismale, gays who have had it hard. They've been evicted from their homes, subjected to electroshock conversion therapy, and kicked out/ostracized by their families. I will say that being queer in the white community is usually easier, but don't completely discredit their struggles. 

[elijahfan 26,306]

I'm so pissed. Why did they have to make this film that's based on true stories, if they're just going to ignore all the facts

Release strategies. This is unfortunate.

[Melech 9,900]

i mean of course! if you're white and attractive, being gay is hardly a set back anymore. for instance this really popular gay couple on youtube, i cant remember their names, but they basically just document their privileged happy lives, both white, both extremely attractive, and both fit in well. people like that dont represent the gay experience at all, the gay struggle, the alienation, but are somehow our representatives to the rest of pop culture. there's so much internalized racism and homophobia in the gay community as it is, this just progresses it. 

I'm white and some say I'm attractive. My mum says that she won't accepts me as a gay and says it's a phase. Lost some of my friends and still having anxiety to tell people that I'm gay because of weird looks. Yeah totally privileged. You are denying homophobia. 

[DrewStevens 5,249]

I mean I wouldn't say that they have it completely easy. I know many white, attractive, cismale, gays who have had it hard. They've been evicted from their homes, subjected to electroshock conversion therapy, and kicked out/ostracized by their families. I will say that being queer in the white community is usually easier, but don't completely discredit their struggles. 

This a million times. 

Just because some people seem to be in a very good position in life it doesn't mean they have always been there. Even being "attractive" is something they could have developed with the time. I know many "attractive" people who used to be overweight or not conventionally attractive at all and most people assume they have always been like that and that they don't know how it feels when you're not attractive.

I don't think anyone can decide who is a good representative of a community. If you are part of the community then you are a representative of it.

-

This movie is very disrespectful and it's obviously a mess. 

[Unknown A 64]

I'm white and some say I'm attractive. My mum says that she won't accepts me as a gay and says it's a phase. Lost some of my friends and still having anxiety to tell people that I'm gay because of weird looks. Yeah totally privileged. You are denying homophobia. 

 love you 

[migamiga 12,102]

Shocker! In America?! No way! 

[Dorothy Gale 7,575]

Who cares? I'm not gonna lose sleep over it.

[SissyFromSpace 20,884]

Who cares? I'm not gonna lose sleep over it.

OMG ur such a bad @$$!!!!!!11111 XDDDDDD

a lot of minorities within a minority (in this case the LGBT POC community) care. Take this ****ty, disrespectful attitude elsewhere. Check yourself.