Stonewall Movie

Smack amid the national debate over gay marriage, along comes "Stonewall," a film that depicts, through composite characters and events, the riots of June and July 1969 that marked the birth of the gay rights movement. Based on historian Martin Duberman's nonfiction book of the same name, "Stonewall," which opens Friday at 25 theaters nationwide, follows North Carolina hayseed Matty Dean (Frederick Weller) from the time he gets off a bus in New York.

Smack amid the national debate over gay marriage, along comes "Stonewall," a film that depicts, through composite characters and events, the riots of June and July 1969 that marked the birth of the gay rights movement. Based on historian Martin Duberman's nonfiction book of the same name, "Stonewall," which opens Friday at 25 theaters nationwide, follows North Carolina hayseed Matty Dean (Frederick Weller) from the time he gets off a bus in New York.

On the evening of June 28, 1969, the police conducted one of their routine raids of Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn, a seedy, Mafia-controlled hangout for drag queens. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was Judy Garland's funeral, just held uptown, that provided the crucial spark. But this time the queens, so long at the mercy of the underworld and a corrupt, brutal police force, stood their ground and fought back.