AIDS thread: I spent the last month watching old documentaries about AIDS. My first observation is that the “intolerant” past was very tolerant. All the documentaries are very supportive of gay people. The tone is at “worst” neutral. The “bad old days” seem similar to today.
Organisations developed to push for greater AIDS funding, like ACT UP, and similar social movements represents trials of organisation forms later seen in the “colour revolutions”. Pussy Riot, for example, uses tactics similar to ACT UP.