Activists Painted the Stonewall Statues over Film's Whitewashing

The trailer for the upcoming Stonewall film has angered many of us.

The main reason is the whitewashing of the tale. The movie has this Danny character as the 'White savior' of the story. Activists from all over were pissed, including the survivors of the original riots.

A couple of activists took note and decided to do more than tweet about it. They painted the statues in front Stonewall to represent the POCs involved in the riots.

Autostraddle talked to the activists who painted the statues. This is what they had to say:

Those sculptures are supposedly there to commemorate the Stonewall riots, but there isn’t a trace of the actual riots in them. They’re a slap across the face to the Black and Latina trans women who got whacked with batons and shoved into police vans, and still had the guts to continue to lead the fight for LGBTQ liberation. I mean, the people who modeled for the sculptures weren’t even at the riots! That’s just a straight-up insult. It’s also important to note that the Mildred Andrews Fund paid a (presumably) straight and cis white man $90,000 to depict gay people. It’s no wonder that the sculptures are so impassive and tone-deaf.

We painted them because Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major, Storme DeLarverie and all the other Black and Brown people who led the movement deserve credit for their courage and strength. What we did was rectification, not vandalism. Those statues are bronze (brown) underneath the layer of white paint — the symbolism behind that is infuriating. I know that some people are going to be angry, but I’m not concerned with preserving bullshit art. I’m angry about the whitewashing of LGBTQ history.

Roland Emmerich responds to the Stonewall Backlash

As you may know, the Stonewall film is getting dragged by the LGBTQ community. There are posts, thinkpieces, petitions and now boycotts over the Whitewashing of the story.

Director Roland Emmerich is truly feeling the heat, so he took to his FB page to address the issue:

When I first learned about the Stonewall Riots through my work with the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, I was struck that the circumstances that lead to LGBT youth homelessness today are pretty much the same as they were 45 years ago. The courageous actions of everyone who fought against injustice in 1969 inspired me to tell a compelling, fictionalized drama of those days centering on homeless LGBT youth, specifically a young midwestern gay man who is kicked out of his home for his sexuality and comes to New York, befriending the people who are actively involved in the events leading up to the riots and the riots themselves. I understand that following the release of our trailer there have been initial concerns about how this character’s involvement is portrayed, but when this film - which is truly a labor of love for me - finally comes to theaters, audiences will see that it deeply honors the real-life activists who were there — including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Ray Castro — and all the brave people who sparked the civil rights movement which continues to this day. We are all the same in our struggle for acceptance.

Well, we will see about that. While there may be a shout out to Marsha, Sylvia and Ray, that trailer said otherwise.

He should've known that a trailer is the main message you send out about your film. What we saw was a White savior and his colorful team of supporters. But not just that, the ads as well. The majority of the ads features Danny, so what are we supposed to think?

I hope this is a lesson learned for Roland.

And A White Boy Shall Lead Them: The Whitewashing of the Stonewall Movie

The other day, we saw the trailer for Roland Emmerich's Stonewall. Most people know the movement was instigated by LGBT people of color living in New York City. So, you would believe the movie would focus on them.

Well, not so much.

In this trailer, we are introduced to Danny, a young white boy with a dream.

He travels to New York City during the time of the revolution. Once he realizes what going on, he steps forward and leads the rebellion, and the rest is history. But here's the thing-- this isn't what happened at all. The people who were truly involved in the Stonewall riots (Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and Storme DeLarverie) are now secondary characters to Danny.

It's almost insulting, but not surprising to see how Hollywood has basically whitewashed our history in this film. From this trailer alone, it seems that this fictional character is the Luke Skywalker/Captain America of LGBT of movement. Again, I am completely judging all of this from the trailer. But the purpose of a trailer is to sell the movie. Did they think by placing this white boy as the lead would make this film more appealing to the audience? Probably so, Hollywood has a deep track record of creating White saviors for films. I guess what makes this film any different, right?

The crapfest doesn't stop there. If you check out the IMDb page for Stonewall, you will find that two of the main people involved in the riots are not there. The person playing Marsha is near the end of the credits, while Sylvia are Storme are not even listed at all. However, the fictional characters are at the very top of the credits. When you stop and think about it you should be angry. Because what we're seeing is a complete and unabashed whitewashing of LGBT history. It seems that everything that went down and the people who were involved were cast aside to tell Danny's story. Was it so hard to tell Marsha P Johnson or Sylvia Rivera's stories? What about researching the other people involved in the movement? And since creating fictional characters is the thing to do, what adding more characters of color to tell the tale?

We may never know what was behind the creation of this movie and the story, but what we do know is this isn't the Stonewall we've appreciated and respected for over 40 years. The people who were truly a part of the movement are gone, and in their place, is a White Knight and the horse he rode on.