Gay pride certainly made science smarter, and I think an excellent argument can be made that gay activism took things further when HIV presented itself as a huge challenge.

The government medical establishment in the United States and other major industrial countries were not disposed to going all out to find a treatment for HIV and AIDS. It took outraged gay activists to leverage public support to change that.

When national governments finally ramped up research funding, amazing things happened in the field of virology.

Our scientists today know so much more about viruses and how they work because of all the research into HIV. In fact, many virologists attest that’s a remarkably speedy development of covid-19 vaccines owes directly to HIV research.

Who knows, that might be a good story idea for an aspiring science writer. :-)