Rewriting History

I want you to look at this short video (2:11) and tell me, who was involved in the Stonewall uprising.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

In articles about the movie they say…

The summer of 1969, which saw the first moonwalk, Woodstock and the Manson murders, was marked by another watershed moment: a police raid on a Mafia-run Greenwich Village gay bar called the Stonewall Inn that would spark a three-day riot and, in many eyes, launch the gay rights movement. This rebellion — it's been called the "Rosa Parks moment for gays" — and the decades of oppression that led up to it are vividly chronicled in the documentary "Stonewall Uprising."
Los Angles Times

Documentary about the Stonewall riots back in 1969 that started the gay rights movement. People who were involved in the riots are interviewed--gay men, lesbians and even a police officer. They paint an incredibly horrific picture of how gay men and lesbians were treated back then. Th They also show some truly fascinating clips from TV specials about homosexuality done back in 1967. It makes it clear that gays are mentally ill and chose this way of life (of course this is all ridiculous). Then they get to the riot. There's no footage of it happening but they show us pictures and all the participants describe what happened and the aftermath.
The Internet Movie Database

I have not seen the movie, but reading the reviews and seeing the trailers of it on the web gives me a distinct impression that the uprising was by white gay men and lesbians.

An article in the Huffington Post titled, “On Stonewall Riot Initiator Sylvia Rivera's Birthday, Her Words About Gay Oppression Against Trans People Still Ring True” had this to say,

Today, a new documentary is making the festival circuit called Stonewall Uprising. Shockingly, but not surprisingly, the white gay and lesbian people primarily responsible for making the film totally "white washed" what really happened, by mainly interviewing white subjects, to having only white men on the promo poster. And it gets even more inaccurate and appalling- the film totally belittles the involvement not only LGBT people of color had in initiating our movement, but it downplays the significant role trans people had in igniting the flame that Stonewall accomplished.

NPR “Weekend All Things Considered” did a show on the Stonewall Uprising back in 1989 and on the web-site where the show is archived, has this to say about the uprising…

But this particular Friday night was different. It sparked a revolution, and a hidden subculture was transformed into a vibrant political movement. What began with a drag queen clobbering her arresting officer soon escalated into a full-fledged riot, and modern gay activism was born.
…
It weaves together the perspectives of the participants, from Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine, who marshaled the raid, to Sylvia Rivera, one of the drag queens who battled most fiercely that night.

Why it is important that the trans-community stand up and demand that history not be rewritten?
Because of comments like Congressman Barney Frank made to the House in October 2007…

The millions of people that talk openly and to take on the prejudice against people who are transgendered is newer. It is also the case that prejudice begins with people reacting against those who are different from them in some way. People are rarely prejudiced against their clones. So we have this situation where there is more prejudice in this society today against people who are transgendered than against people who are gay and lesbian, partly because we have been working longer at dealing with the sex orientation prejudice; partly because the greater the difference, the greater the prejudice is to start, the more people fail to identify, the more they are put off by differences, especially when those differences come in matters of the greatest personal intimacy.

That is why we need to stand up and challenge any one who tries to rewrite trans-people out of history.