Colorado College’s independent newspaper. The Catalyst is reporting that members of the campus’ LGBTQIA+ group wanted to cancel a planned screening of Roland Emmerich’s “Stonewall” because it would be an act of violence against them:
A group of concerned students called for a boycott of the screening and created a group, Radicals Against Institutional Damage (R.A.I.D.). The group sent a letter signed by nine to key administration on campus expressing their views.
“This film is discursively violent,” write the activists. “In a world where cisgender, white gay people have finally achieved ’marriage equality’ and many see the struggle as being over, it is reinforcing a hierarchy of oppression to invent someone who never existed and place them in a historically-based film with the express purpose of silencing more marginalized groups.”
“Critical discussion is simply a way of engaging in respectability politics,” said Amelia Eskani, a first year student. “I think Colorado College should cancel the screening because the safety and well-being of queer and trans students surpasses the importance of a critical discussion. By showing the movie on campus, we are accepting an inaccurate portrayal of the Stonewall Riots and creating a space of oppression for queer and trans students on campus.”
“If CC is really as dedicated to diversity and inclusion,” added junior Grace Montesano, “they would never have agreed to screen a film that queer students have repeatedly stated is a threat to our identity and our safety. It is fallacious to equate the rights of students to view a movie with the rights of students to exist free of violence.”
This is definitely an extreme argument against “Stonewall,” and not one that ended up being considered legitimate by Colorado College. They decided to go ahead with the screening. Do you think they should have?
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