If you're a gay guy watching the film, your comfort factor could depend on how far along you are in the coming out process.

I agree with you here. It's been 27 years since I saw the film, but I still remember the little twink from the prairie (just like me) who was Pacino's character's neighbor in the film. He was the character I identified with. When he turned up a victim it disturbed me deeply. I had an emotional experience, which is what I buy when I purchase my ticket. The gay men in the film looked nothing like the gay people I knew in Tacoma, Washington. If there was a lesson, it was when you're in NYC, watch out: it's full of predators. But that's something everyone outside of New York has always believed.

We're talking about art, not polemics. Not every film is intended to be polemical. Another of Friedkin's gay-oriented films was polemical--The Boys in the Band (1970). The two films need to be viewed in the context of each other as the work of the same artist. Cruising is a murder-mystery--it just so happened that it took place within a gay subculture, presented as authentically as possible, and which most of middle America would find extremely cringeworthy.

And as far as taking risks goes, Hollywood has completely abrogated that responsibility. You can find risk-taking in independent film (The Mysterious Skin, for example) and on HBO--but Hollywood has limited the power of its artists.