By 1970 the contest had become for famous that The Advocate featured a Groovy Guy float in the first gay pride parade on Hollywood Boulevard in June 1970.

Starting with the 1970 event, rumors in the community started circulating that the contest was fixed. These rumors increased each year and started causing some damage to the Advocate's reputation. In addition to this, some critics accused the contest of making money off the community and not putting it back in, despite the fact that the Advocate gave donations to the Metropolitan Community Church and the Los Angeles Gay Community Center. Filmmaker Pat Rocco started filming the events in this year. The winner was Larry Schramm (sponsored by the Jaguar Club), the 1st runner up was Chico Rodriguez (of the Little Club), and the 2nd runner up was Jim Cassidy (sponsored by Bizarre Productions).