When I was 15 I went on a tour of part of the Village with a friend and a soon-to-be ex, the three of us soaking up the history of New York City streets alongside tourists and older couples with Groupon tickets. We started at the intersection of Christopher Street and 7th Avenue; first stop as a shuffling group, the famous Stonewall Inn, brightly colored flags hanging on the dinged brick, setting it aside from the dirt-encrusted streets even before the name became visible.

A chirpy brunette, clutching a venti Starbucks cup as she trembled with what was supposed to be enthusiasm but might have been a caffeine overdose, repeated the word history over and over as the tourists took pictures outside the bar’s windows to prove they’d been there. A few minutes into her diatribe on the brave men who began the riot, an old man shuffled out of the building and stopped to listen, half-smile on his wrinkled face, the lines damp from the heat of the day. He held up a hand as she went on--excuse me--gentlemanly as you please, and gracefully informed her in a gravelly voice that she was full of shit, but he was fully willing to educate us all.

This role of teacher to the uninformed masses is one many members of the Internet that has jumped to fill after the trailer for the new movie "Stonewall" was released. Articles and posts abound citing series of Tumblr rants and Twitter streams of people horribly disappointed about the whitewashing apparent in the trailer, and the seeming erasure of Marsha P. Johnson, the transgender woman who is often credited with having thrown the first brick in the historic riot, not the white man in his 20s implied to have done so in the trailer. Within a few days the movement “Boycott Stonewall” sprung up, marked by the spread of a petition that encourages queer people to avoid the movie and use social media to remember what really happened at the Inn. But is this rush to condemn legitimate?

Those who are calling the movie a white/cis-washed version of events are, for the most part, activists and everyday citizens who have not been privy to any of the early screenings of the film, and, thus, are making assumptions on the strength and makeup of the whole work off of the trailer alone. Director Roland Emmerich defended his film on a Facebook post made August 6, claiming that “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."

If his statement proves true when the film shows September 25, then perhaps the film has merely been a victim of so called “call-out culture” where one person’s outrage leads to spiraling Internet one-upmanship without real investigation. Yet, whether critics stand corrected or not, there is a series of critiques of film culture that should emerge from this controversy and settle in to stay for the long haul.

The habit of using more palatable protagonists to sell LGBTQ movies to masses, in this case our white friend Danny taking the spotlight in "Stonewall's" trailer instead of Marsha or any of her famous compatriots, is an oft-used Trojan horse. Even "Orange is the New Black" fell into this modus operandi, using Piper to sell the show to producers before the stories of Taystee and Suzanne, among others, stole our attention and refused to give it back. This is not something that should be done or should need to be done. Movies about non-white and transgender people shouldn’t have to be sold under a porcelain façade to prove to people that their stories are worth hearing. And on that note, why are there no transgendered actors, no openly queer actors, and only five actors of color listed in "Stonewall’s" IMDB cast? If you’re going to make a movie about a diverse group of people, then the makeup of the cast should reflect that diversity. No excuses.

For those who considered the trailer disappointing, those angry at the possibility of a disappointing movie, or those just wanting to know more about the real history behind the start of the gay rights movement, the documentary "Pay it No Mind: Marsha P. Johnson" is a great way to embroil oneself in the unpolished Stonewall Inn and the activism of an amazing woman. Otherwise, only time will tell us if "Stonewall" is a film that needs to be seen or hopefully forgotten with the help of several shots at the bar where it all began.