Right, good question!

Sometimes it's pointless to try to figure what goes on in movies (without internet message board posters' trying to explain things, and sometimes even with internet message board posters' trying to explain things).

So I wouldn't have been able to figure out what was being implicit nor explicit in the way of homoerotica in "Midnight Cowboy" either without posters on other leading boards to spell things out.

Seems as though the title "Midnight Cowboy" comes from Hollywood code, meaning male for male hooker. When Hollywood calls them hookers, they're usually female for male, and when Hollywood calls them gigolos, then they're usually male for female.

Don't know the jargon for f4f nor other things although you do hear terms used on the internet for stuff like that, but when the title character is called a "Midnight Cowboy," then that's what has become known on message boards as G4pay, or so they say.

But that would have been subject to forbidden ratings if they got all graphic.

John Schlesinger, the director of Midnight Cowboy was openly gay by the time he made this film. I'm sure he adapted the novel, also written by an gay man (which includes more outright romantic-sounding written scenes in the book) because the relationship between Joe & Ratso is something he could connect to. Dustin Hoffman has commented on it in several interviews:

What disgusted the crew is what attracted Dustin Hoffman to Midnight Cowboy. After his breakthrough film, The Graduate, he wanted a role completely different, and he reveled in his character’s possible homosexuality. For example, in the film Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo live in the same abandoned apartment. One day, Schlesinger gave his two actors a bit of direction. “All right, Dustin’s going to be on the floor and Voight’s going to be on the bed.” Hoffman, however, wasn’t buying it. “We’re not just roommates, we’re lovers. Why aren’t we in bed together, they’re lovers.”

The sexual component of the characters’ relationship was always the 800-pound gorilla in the room—or on the set, as it were. “Both Voight and I are actors, and it hit us. ‘Hey, these guys are queer,’” observes Hoffman. “I think it came out of the fact that we were in the abandoned tenement [where the characters share a flat]. We were looking around the set, and I said, ‘So? Where do I sleep? Why do I sleep here and he sleeps there? Why does he have the really nice bed? Why aren’t I—yeah, why aren’t we sleeping together? C’mon.’ Schlesinger, who was wonderful because he was so courageous in his outing himself at a time when that wasn’t common, got very troubled. He said, ‘Oh God! Please! It was hard enough to get the financing. Now all we have to do is tell them that we’re making a homosexual film. I was hoping we would get the college crowd. We’ll get no one.’ He absolutely—and I’m sure he was right—did not want to make it explicit.”

Another interview quote that I absolutely agree with. Hope this all helps:

Schlesinger's response is very telling. He is way ahead of the curve, and it says a lot about our times today that we still have trouble recognizing this as a cultural touchstone for gay cinema. Today, the people who think this is a simple buddy-buddy story vastly overwhelm those who view it as what it actually is: as a touching and vastly tragic parable about homosexual love in the 60s.

Wow, I completely missed the gay subtext. It's no wonder this film felt empty and pointless to me at the end.

Here is an article/review written by Roger Ebert in 1994. He also reviewed it when it was released. It might help with the questions about what some call the subtext (homosexuality) of the film?

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/midnight-cowboy-1969-1

@bratface said:

Here is an article/review written by Roger Ebert in 1994. He also reviewed it when it was released. It might help with the questions about what some call the subtext (homosexuality) of the film?

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/midnight-cowboy-1969-1

Thanks again. Excellent write-up. It had me wondering if I saw the same film that he reviewed. It's time for a rewatch.

@CelluloidFan said:

@bratface said:

Here is an article/review written by Roger Ebert in 1994. He also reviewed it when it was released. It might help with the questions about what some call the subtext (homosexuality) of the film?

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/midnight-cowboy-1969-1

Thanks again. Excellent write-up. It had me wondering if I saw the same film that he reviewed. It's time for a rewatch.

You are welcome. I'm not sure if you know but it was rated X (the only X-rated film to win Best Picture) when it was released because of homosexuality, prostitution, etc. Here is part of the wiki article:

"Upon initial review by the Motion Picture Association of America, Midnight Cowboy received a "Restricted" ("R") rating. However, after consulting with a psychologist, executives at United Artists were told to accept an "X" rating, due to the "homosexual frame of reference" and its "possible influence upon youngsters.” The film was released with an X rating.[1] The MPAA later broadened the requirements for the "R" rating to allow more content and raised the age restriction from sixteen to seventeen. The film was later rated "R" for a reissue in 1971. It retains its R rating."