celebrated by gays
was this film idolized by gays at its release because it portrayed them as normal people and not effeminate designer types like the often were in the seventies
shareNot that I recall. Then again, even though homosexuality had been decriminalized in the U.K. 4 years before the movie, homosexuals were not "coming out" by then so they didn't talk much about it. Since the characters in the movie are as much about promiscuity as homosexuality, they hardly come across as umm, champions for the "cause" anyway.
Neither Alex nor Daniel is promiscuous -- each is seeing only one person. And Bob, tho seeing two, is faithful to them in his way. So none of them are promiscuous (= sleeping with lots of people).
In addition, Daniel is a model of upper-middle-class respectability. (Note that his affluent and presumably straight neighbor gets the tawdry News of the World, with its headline story of a nude au pair.) Daniel is the most responsible + stable + compassionate person in the movie. Never before had a movie shown a not-tormented or not-deviant-in-some-way gay man or lesbian, so I'd say the movie *does*, subtly, strike a blow for a less bigoted view of the world.
"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."