2 April
**Town Meeting on gays in the military and don’t ask, don’t tell (see Assignments)** Chauncey 9-10 (227-300); Faderman Chs.3 & 5
3 April 
Nigel Finch, Stonewall
4 April Faderman 6-8, D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities Part 1 (9-56)
and Berry, “History, Herstory, Queerstory? Stonewall — the Movie” on ereserve
Stonewall, the film
How well does Nigel Finch’s Stonewall depict the actual events? Connect the film to what you know from Chauncey, Faderman, and now D’Emilio.
The mythology surrounding Stonewall, coupled with each participants’ alternate experience and beliefs mean that the movie Stonewall could be very similar or completely different from what they believe happened. The movie Stonewall plays into this phenomenon when LaMiranda states that her story may not be “true” but that it is true to her, and that is all that matters. The Berry article discusses that the movie alters the chronology and events slightly so as to reach a wider audience and leave more wiggle room for the narrative to expand. In this article, Bravmann states that by doing so, the movie “repeats the false promise of stability” and effectively undercuts the relevance of what actually happened. He later states that the film runs the risk of putting Stonewall into neat teleological and dialectical versions of history, which he argues is detrimental as a whole.
However, Berry says that by these shifts, the movie makes the audience think more on the actual event of Stonewall, and thus creates greater resonance in society.
To an extent ‘actual’ cannot be used to refer to the true events, since every event, when re-told, is biased to an extent. Since, Nigel Finch’s Stonewall is told from the perspective of the individual LaMiranda, the ‘actual’ events, as Elise also states, are the reality for this individual.
When comparing Finch’s Stonewall to Faderman’s description of the events they are slightly different. Faderman describes the events very factually, whereas the movie conveys a lot of personal emotion as Stonewall is told from an individuals perspective. Faderman also states that during the night of Stonewall the “police came with a search warrant authorizing them to investigate reports that liquor was being sold there without a license.” Whereas in the movie, when the police arrived, they not only interrogated, but also harassed the individuals at the club, making sure they were wearing “three items of clothing associated with their gender.” Therefore it seems that although the police illustrated that their motives for raiding the club were due to a liquor license, in actual fact they had underlying motives.
Chauncey dwells on the ability of clubs to arrange protection. Chauncey conveys how certain clubs were able to make arrangements “to ensure police protection- and protection from the police.” However, “such arrangements could stave off the police for only so long.” This illustrates, that because of the nature of the clubs, no money or connections could protect them forever. This links with the death of Vinnie in the film, where after he died, the first thing the police did was raid Stonewall, as it had lost it’s protection. In reality, drag queens like Bostonia could not be safe forever.
Nigel Finch’s Stonewall depicts the actual events very emotively. Yet because all sources have different opinions of the events, including Faderman and Chauncy’s sources, it is hard to convey which events represent the true Stonewall riot.
When compared to the facts presented by Faderman and Chauncey, it’s clear that Finch took a few liberties with the accuracy and chronology of the events leading up to Stonewall. For example, the eventual refusal for the “sip-in” depicted in the film did not happen at the Stonewall Inn but at Julius, another gay bar. Additionally, the picket that Matty Dean went to in Philadelphia didn’t happen until /after/ the Stonewall riots had already happened.
However, Finch did get many of the overall details correct. While the chronology of the events may not be right, they did /happen/. The mafia was in charge of the gay bars, and the police did often raid them under false pretenses.
While some may see these inaccuracies as a sort of betrayal to Stonewall, it doesn’t surprise me that Finch changed some of the events around in order to make for a better movie. It’s very rare that film adaptations of real-life events are 100% accurate (with the exception of documentaries), and some compromises had to be made in order to communicate certain feelings and attitudes through the constraints of the film medium.