I disagree that the film has a poisonous message. I don't believe it has a message at all. It's a noir murder mystery about distinct, individual characters that transpires in an exotic location (the SMBD world of urban gay life in 1980). Are you saying that Friedkin intentionally created a propaganda piece that intended to get real gay men killed? Or, that he unintentionally pandered to American homophobia because he was unhip enough not to know what he was doing?

I'm a big fat homo writer, and I saw this film in 1980 when I was 22. I found it intensely moving and interesting. I did not glean a message from it that was at all negative toward gays. I think that art is in the eye of the beholder, and so is the message. I'm going to defend the artists here--not politically correct sensibilities. A far, far more damaging film to me as a young gay virgin would have been Ode to Billy Joe, which, if you're looking for a message is this: gay sex is a sin against man and god, and if you partake you should kill yourself.

But that's not what that film was about, and when I saw it was captivated by its drama and tragedy. Needless to say, losing my virginity did not result in self-slaughter. Not all movies are propaganda.