Honoring the Stonewall Rebellion's 39th anniversary ... with a video game

June 27, 1969 marked a definitive moment for the gay community: When a police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, it sparked an uprising from the bar's patrons, who had had enough of the harassment the raid symbolized (and, according to many accounts, were already upset over the recent death of gay icon Judy Garland earlier in the week).

The revolt grew, as people from nearby bars stepped in to support the Stonewall patrons, eventually turning into a protest that lasted for five days. While the idea of gay pride and that gay people had the right to exist without constant harassment had been building for some time thanks to groups like the Mattachine Society, the uprising energized the gay rights movement. A year later, the event was marked with the first Pride Parade and several major cities celebrate Pride on the last Sunday in June because of Stonewall.

One website is celebrating Pride with a webgame inspired by the Stonewall Rebellion. Stonewall Brawl takes designs from gay cartoonist Eric Orner (creator of The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green) and turns them into a Streets of Rage-style side-scrolling fighting game, where you play a character that fights police officers, collects martini power-ups and unleashes a superpower based on disco fabulousness.

When news of Stonewall Brawl first came out reaction was pretty mixed. Critics wondered if the game would reflect the diversity of the Stonewall Revolution's participants (the Stonewall Inn's patrons were mostly Black and Hispanic, and the uprising probably wouldn't have happened if not for the drag queens and transgenders who were a key part), asked if the game could be taken out of context to make the gay community look bad (after all, it is a game about violence against the police) and worried that turning the Rebellion into a game would trivialize a key event for gay rights.

On the bright side, the game does have more diversity than the pre-release screen shot suggested. Three of the five characters are either transgender or in drag and George'a is a person of color. Still, for a game that was described as being a way to educate queer youth about the Stonewall Rebellion, it doesn't tell much about the landmark event beyond an explanation about Stonewall accessed via the "About" button. I guess I was hoping I'd have to click through a text screen at the beginning of each stage.

Still, it's certainly fun to play a fighter who can summon a powerful rainbow blast or subdue attackers with a boombox playing disco. Stonewall Brawl also succeeds in another stated goal, giving us a game where all the major protagonists are queer. Perhaps it would work better without the historical setting?

What do you think? Does Stonewall Brawl trivialize the Stonewall Rebellion, or are we all just thinking too hard about some dumb fun? Let us know in the comments!