The film is not representative of gayness as a whole, it is a peep into a sleazy underbelly. I don't know what they are protesting about. The vast majority of gay men were horrified by the film and the light it portrayed them in. Friedkin says this footage is lost and has probably been destroyed. The film originally had 40 extra minutes of hardcore gay sex content which made it look like Pacino was participating. Whenever the action is set in gay leather bars, we can see extras indulging in partially obscured sex acts including fellatio and fisting. In the first kill scene, director William Friedkin spliced in shots of anal sex - these are only really noticeable by freeze frame.
Cruising (1980) Al Pacino makes a brave career move to play an undercover cop who is sent to the Meatpacking District in New York to investigate the goings on of a Serial Killer who is targeting the gay community - in particular the gay community with association to the SM scene.
