No black gay people in Crusing?

As far as I know, most of the extras were generally actual patrons of s&m gay clubs. With that in mind, since I am not American, nor gay and wasn't even around in 1980, I can only theorize that those kind of clubs were mostly white joints. Actually, if I am not mistaken, you can't see hispanics either.

And ????

Ugh, another one of these threads. What is your point? Not ever movie has to have a cast that confirms to affirmative action quotas or census-based demographic distributions of ethnicity or race.

Nearly all of the men in the bar scenes were actually patrons of the leather sex clubs. Friedkin wanted it as authentic as possible so he simply used the regulars who consented to be filmed - that was pretty gutsy at the time for both the filmmakers and the men who were essentially outing themselves as not only gay but into very extreme sex. I doubt Friedkin weeded out the blacks or shoved them to the back. It is not like he put out a casting call for light-skinned only extras.

Rest assured, there are plenty of black gay people into BDSM. I can point to dozens of websites that show openly-active black people in the community. But these are different times under different circumstances. If the blacks in Cruising didn't want to be in the foreground sex, it was their choice.

Blacks weren't allowed to be gay back then.

Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...

I know it's several years later but I just saw this post and felt I needed to respond. Many people don't know that for a significant portion of the 20th century a large number of gay clubs and night spots (in fact, a large proportion of these types of places in general) were "Members Only" which was known to be code for "Whites Only". Clubs and night spots in New York were no exception. There were allowances, of course, but more often than not, if a person or persons of color were admitted, it was usually as a guest of a member or sporadically at first then, as time went on, more frequently through granted membership. It wasn't until the mid to late seventies when integration began to occur at an accelerated pace that many but not all clubs began to relax or change their policies. Having said that, the film is pretty accurate in its representation of ethnicities in those clubs with regards to their proportions given the time frame in which it set.

A broader example of this type of historical discrimination would be the enactment of New York's cabaret laws (still in effect) which prohibit dancing in bars, clubs, etc. by groups of 3 or more people without the establishment having a cabaret license. These laws were put into effect to discourage Blacks and other minorities, mainly from Harlem and the Bronx, from coming downtown to the jazz clubs, where Blacks performed, and interacting socially with white patrons, women in particular.

I never thought of that

At that time most of the black gay men were not leather guys. That has changed, but back in 1980 a lot of gay black men were more into the disco/club scene.