When director Roland Emmerich set out to create his upcoming film “Stonewall,” he was engaging in a labor of love. He desired to tell the very American story of standing up to power and demanding equal rights. What he could not have expected is that angry backlash and threats of boycotts would come, not from right-wing, religious zealots, but from the LGBT community itself. Now Emmerich stands accused of whitewashing and cis-washing the seminal event in gay-rights history.
The allegation is that Emmerich, by choosing a white protagonist from middle America (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) to tell his story, is trying to deny others, specifically trans persons of color, their rightful place as the true heroes of Stonewall. This is all based on a relatively recent myth that it was the transvestites (as they were then known) who were at the vanguard of the riot, leading the pasty, limp-wristed, white, gay crowd to courage they could never have summoned on their own. “Stonewall” stands accused of perpetuating a racist and anti-trans version of the past.
The accusation is absurd on its face. But the widespread willingness of many on the Left and in the gay community to embrace the very flawed narrative used to attack Emmerich is telling. It speaks not only to the rewriting of gay history, but to a broader effort to ensure that our historical record is purged of references to the heroic actions of overly privileged people. Not only must the privileged of today confess their advantages, the privileged of the past must be stripped of their laurels.
What Really Happened? In the history of the gay-rights movement, Stonewall stands out as the opening act of the dramatic struggle, one that brought us to the wide acceptance of homosexuality in society today. The riot at the Stonewall Inn is rightfully regarded as the first angry demand for equal rights by the LGBT community. What should have been a routine police raid on an underground New York City gay bar turned into much more. For a variety of reasons, patrons were fed up. No longer content to scurry off into the night, they stood their ground. The confrontation with police that ensued would forever change the gay-rights movement and the nation.
The confrontation with police that ensued would forever change the gay-rights movement and the nation. In his excellent book on Stonewall, David Carter recounts the hectic events that led up to the violence of June 29, 1969. In the preceding week, the police had seemed to step up their raids and intimidation of the gay community in New York City’s West Village neighborhood. Some believed this was related to the mayoral election, that Mayor Lindsay was trying to look tough on immoral behavior. Others cited new leadership in the sixth police precinct that covered the neighborhood. But, whatever the cause, tension was high. These were life-and-death issues for many of the closeted gay men, who risked losing their jobs and even their families if they were arrested in a gay bar.
The raid started like many others. The police entered, turned on the lights, and began separating patrons from the people who worked there, including the mafia bosses who ran the illegal club. Another group they separated were the small number of transvestites, who were breaking the law by wearing women’s clothing and who the police suspected of prostitution. Those groups were held in the back room. Meanwhile, in the main room, some gay patrons were filing out after showing ID, and others were stubbornly refusing to leave. As tensions rose, crowds gathered outside, soon in the hundreds. It started to become clear that this would not be another routine raid.
