Director Roland Emmerich has spoken out in support of his upcoming film Stonewall, defending the project against accusations that it ignored the role drag queens, the transgender community, and people of color played in the 1969 riots in Greenwich Village. The controversy arose after the release of the movie’s first trailer.
Wrote Emmerich on Facebook:
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.
A boycott campaign of the movie is already underway. The campaign describes the movie as, “… the newest whitewashed version of queer history.” Whether Emmerich’s statement will satisfy the boycott organizers remains to be seen.
