The play, on which the film is based, was first performed in 1967, a year before the Stonewall riots -- The film, released in 1970, is performed by the same actors as those that appeared in the play -- I personally was not yet out and still married (as are some characters in the film) -- the time was at the cusp of the beginning of the gay liberation movement, and is said to have been the first play, then film, to portray with frankness homesexual men -- They are, however, stereotypes portrayed mostly as sad and unhappy people -- In my personal social interactions just a few years later these characters had pretty much vanished -- Richard says that when he saw this film as an out student at Stanford, he and his friends just could not understand the charactization and assume it was a NYC thing-- It is interesting to note that I did not view this film until 46 years after its release, and found the protagonists so irritating that I considered not watching the film further -- It is, however, a period piece and an essential film of modern gay cultural history.