The trailer depicts Danny moving to New York City, and falling in with a group of LGBT kids who frequent the Stonewall Inn — the namesake of the Stonewall riots that started on June 28, 1969.

The trailer depicts Danny moving to New York City, and falling in with a group of LGBT kids who frequent the Stonewall Inn — the namesake of the Stonewall riots that started on June 28, 1969.

However, while what happened that night — in an era before social media — was not precisely recorded, most of the LBGT people on the front lines of the Stonewall riots were people of color, trans people, and lesbians — i.e., not cisgender white gay men.

But in the trailer, it looks as if the person who throws the first brick, and helps to lead the riots, is Danny — whereas trans activist Sylvia Rivera has been credited as one of the first to throw a bottle.

And although LGBT people of color are part of the riots as seen in the trailer, Danny is in the foreground, suggesting he is the most important character.

And although LGBT people of color are part of the riots as seen in the trailer, Danny is in the foreground, suggesting he is the most important character.

Stonewall is not in our past: it is our present and our future. It cannot be commodified for the cisgender heterosexual gaze.

In response to the outcry, director Roland Emmerich ( Independence Day , The Day After Tomorrow ) issued a statement on Facebook on Thursday saying that the film "deeply honors the real-life activists" who were central to the Stonewall riots.

Emmerich, an out gay man who was born in Germany, said he first learned about the Stonewall riots while working with the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, and the more he learned about them, the more he realized he wanted to make "a compelling, fictionalized drama of those days centering on homeless LGBT youth, specifically a young midwestern gay man who is kicked out of his home for his sexuality and comes to New York."

"I understand that following the release of our trailer there have been initial concerns about how this character's involvement is portrayed," Emmerich continued, "but when this film — which is truly a labor of love for me — finally comes to theaters, audiences will see that it deeply honors the real-life activists who were there — including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Ray Castro — and all the brave people who sparked the civil rights movement which continues to this day. We are all the same in our struggle for acceptance."