Pay it No Mind – Five Trans POC Movies to Watch Instead of “Stonewall”

The boycott of the movie “Stonewall” is on.

It was inevitable. As soon as information about “Stonewall” was released, it was clear that the film was going to center the stories of cis-gender white gay men and that trans women of color were going to be written out of history. Again. And now trans people are resisting. Again.

Monica Roberts explains the problem with this film beautifully:

Umm, naw boo boo kitty, that’s not how it went down, and as long as Miss Major is alive, I’m not letting that fictionalized whitewashed trans free Stonewall narrative even gain a foothold because it’s a crime against history.

The reality coming from multiple witnesses to the original event say that it was Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, butch lesbians and other persons of color who jumped off the riot in 1969 while the Fire Island gays were still cowering in their closets.

Even Ray Hill, who is one of our Houston human rights icons and was one of the early Big Four Gay leaders along with Harvey Milk, Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings, has told me that Stonewall was a trans and gender variant POC led uprising.

As a transgender writer and scholar, I’m pissed too. And I’m hurt in a way that I’m not prepared to describe right now. But in the words of Marsha P. Johnson – pay it no mind. Here are five movies made by and for trans people of color that you should be watching instead:

Upcoming Films:

Happy Birthday, Marsha: Here’s a story of Stonewall that centers trans women of color, pure and simple. Happy Birthday, Marsha will be coming out soon.

http://www.happybirthdaymarsha.com/

Major: Miss Major Griffin-Gracey is another hero who was not only present during the Stonewall rebellion, but also at the Attica uprising. This upcoming documentary show trans resistance to the prison industrial complex, one of the aspects of our history and present that’s ignored and dismissed by films like “Stonewall.”

Free Cece: Trans resistance didn’t stop with Stonewall. It lives on in people like Cece McDonald. This trailer is wonderful – just think of how great the upcoming film will be.