I was 14 in 1980 and didn't see it upon its theatrical release although I do remember news stories in L.A. about the protests in NYC while the movie was being filmed. Of course anything gay-related was of interest to me but a lot of the news coverage was biased, I could see that even then and I wondered why. When I finally saw the movie a few years later on video It already seemed of a different, pre-AIDS era. Of course it was awful seeing gay men get murdered so brutally and the fact that the murders were tied to sex made it scarier. If nothing else I knew the movie's characters didn't reflect who I was as a gay teen at the time. The first movies to offer a hint of reflection of who I considered myself to be were Making Love and Parting Glances. Both are worth tracking down. Making Love has its heart in the right place but its depiction of the average gay man played by Harry Hamlin as vain, self-centered, promiscuous and emotionally unavailable was discouraging to me. The rest of the movie plays more like a tv movie but it's worth a watch. Parting Glances is low budget indie but well made and showed gay people living their lives and not grappling with being gay. That one came closer to reflecting my experience and I think it was Steve Buscemi's first movie.