In those days, many guys wee gay on weekends, straight acting Monday through Friday. Society didn’t like it, families raised eyebrows. It was the era of “couples” always having separate apartments, not talking about the other at work or school, or among straight friends. If a pair did become known in the non-gay world, your partner was known as your “friend” or your “roommate”. Gay marriage was not even on the radar screen yet. The military was weeding out gays left and right. These Fire Island frolicers were all born during the gay bashing and gay witch hunts of the lavender scare, under Sen Joe McCarthy and NY asshole closet case lawyer Roy Cohen. mere suspicion of being gay, or even unmarried beyond a certain undefined age, could be grounds for loosing government jobs, and of course, no security clearances for gays. So as you smugly criticize these guys in the film, I urge other viewers to try to place yourselves in their shoes, and imagine what gay life was in 1976. I knew a guy who once told me that he only could feel alive in summer on fire Islan, the rest of the year in upstate New York where he was a teacher, he had no social life, no outwardly gay experiences or appearances.
