“It upset me tremendously to see the ways gays were being treated,” he adds. “In The Gay Essay I wanted to celebrate the gays that were living openly,” especially at a time, in the early days of the gay movement, following the Stonewall riots. “It was more about my desire to create a great set of pictures with a heartfelt determination to honor gay people, respect them and their freedom,” he says. “They especially helped me in learning how to listen, and really allowing people’s energy to come to me and through the lens of my camera.”įor Friedkin, the goal was to move past many stereotypes and deepen the representation of gay individuals of all types.

“They just helped me all around,” he recalls. He saw that world as a “refuge” and a place where gays were “allowed to be themselves” more than in any other place.īut The Gay Essay really began while he explored the Los Angeles Gay Community Services Center where he met Morris Kight and Don Kilhefner, two men who ran the programs there and founded the Gay Liberation Front in Los Angeles in 1969 where they mobilized the community against the LAPD’s harassment of homosexuals. While growing up in Hollywood, Freidkin’s parents worked in the film industry and had close friends that led full openly gay lives.