> EVERYTHING possible not to mention how tipped the outbreaks were among
Quite the opposite here.
It was originally called GRIDS, and when it started the coverage was entirely focused on gay men. The media/government made an effort to contradict that 1) in order to protect straight people who thought it was impossible for them to catch, and 2) to counteract the public propensity for hate crimes against minorities when they are perceived as dangerous.
Here's Reagan's press secretary laughing and joking about "the gay plague" when only a few hundred had died, you homophobic ghoul
I remember. Homosexuality was still largely taboo and sex was definitely not something mentioned on the news, until some tipping point where it became normalized. People tend to remember the after, not the before for this specific transition.
I remember when AIDS was spreading and it was described as “gay cancer” and mostly ignored by the U.S. administration because of that.
I'm not sure what you're saying agrees with the fact that people informally called AIDS "gay cancer" before it had an official name that was a little memorable.