Documentary filmmaker Arthur Dong has never shied away from controversial topics. In The Question of Equality: Out Rage '69, he tackled the 1969 Stonewall Riots that initiated the modern Gay Pride movement. His 1997 film, Coming Out Under Fire, revealed how the U.S. Army utilized sham psychiatry to persecute hundreds of gay servicemen during World War II. For Licensed to Kill, Dong — himself a victim of a gay-bashing incident in 1977 — interviewed several men who had been convicted of murdering homosexuals.