Australians are still reeling at the certain defeat of marriage equality in this term of parliament. Any hope was crushed under the brutal hand of Tony Abbott and the rest of the Coalition, to the dismay of some 30 Coalition MPs, many other Labor and Greens MPs, and 72 per cent of the Australian public.

This speaks to possibly the biggest concern faced by LGBT activism: at some point, we have to hand over the reigns. As a minority of the population, in order to effect change, we have to rely on our allies to do some of the work for us. We’ll never have an LGBT majority in parliament, so at some stage we have to surrender any agency to the straight (probably white, probably male) politicians in order to get the last bit of legwork done.

It’s frightening, knowing that you can’t be in total control of your own movement. But just because sometimes we can’t doesn’t mean we should forget when we were, or erase that history.

This is my (and a lot of people’s) problem with the new movie, Stonewall [pictured above]. With trailers recently released, this iconic moment in LGBT history appears to have been white- and cis-washed by the movie, as the story largely follows a fictional white guy from rural America.

If you know LGBT history, you’ll know the Stonewall riots were largely initiated by the black, transgender and drag queen communities within New York City. Since the film’s trailers have come out, there has been outrage over the fact that it appears to demonstrate the film’s protagonist, Danny, throwing the first brick, when in actual fact, it was a black transgender woman named Martha P. Johnson.

Some have defended the film, including its lead actor Jeremy Irvine, saying that the trailer doesn’t adequately represent the role women of colour play in the full-length movie.

This is irrelevant, because it speaks to my broader point. That the trailer (we’ll judge the film when it’s released) appears to replace the role of trans women of colour with white men is an erasure of our history, and a muting of the power these people have.

When our story is made appropriate for Hollywood, the true minorities are silenced. Why? Because cisgender white men are more palatable for a mainstream audience. When marriage equality is passed in Australia, it’ll be passed in large part at the hands of a bunch of cisgender white men in parliament.

The erasure of our past and the demolishing of our future (for now) are both emblematic of the influence the patriarchy still has on LGBT movements. We rely on white men, both gay and their allies, in order to make our movements visible in the mainstream.

The film Milk is a perfect demonstration of this. While reasonably historically accurate (though still no doubt participating in a little bit of cis-white-washing), the film is full of men – because in the ’70s, women were still struggling for equality as a whole. When all women were still treated unequally, it made it almost impossible for women of minorities (both racial and sexual) to stand up and fight for their own individual rights.

White men had the luxury to fight for minority rights, while women and people of colour were largely still invisible. When we erase a major moment in history in which trans women of colour had a voice, we’re silencing them again, once more relying on white men to tell our story and to fight our battles. And this is letting the patriarchy win. Again.

This Week…From Wednesday August 19 – Sunday August 23, an original play by playwright Charlie O’Grady is running at the M2 Gallery in Surry Hills. Kaleidoscope tells the story of transgender man Gabe, and his daily experience of being read as someone he is not. Alongside the play is an exhibition of artworks by a variety of trans and genderqueer artists.

Former Wednesday night Newtown favourite, Care?-E?-Okay! at Tokyo Sing Song, has recently moved to Thursdays. Head there this Thursday August 20 for some love song serenading by both you and your friends and the ever-charismatic host, Aaron Manhattan [below].

On Sunday August 23, Heaps Gay and the Rhythm Of The Night parties are teaming up to bring you Footwork, a daytime party to save the Alexandria Hotel. It’ll feature Levins, Ariane and a bunch more of the Heaps Gay regulars.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine