Actually, the gay population in Sf was more splintered than you suggest. The Folsom street area in the SOMA district (a rough warehouse area traditionally home to sailors and tradesman) of SF was the sex center of the gay community here, not the Castro.
The bulk of sex clubs and bath houses were located in an area largely inhabited and frequented by the Leather SM subculture, who were vilified by both heteros and more genteel gays as being responsible for the rise in the transmission of HIV (see fisting and other boundary stretching practices).
It was less a matter of gays feeling their right to promiscuity was being violated, and more a belief that the city was excessive in their intrusion on the practices of consenting adults.