AIDS and Gay Identity

So I was discussing the AIDS crisis with my friends and I had a thought: how did the invention of a gay identity shape the way that AIDS was approached as a disease? We know through our readings that part of the reason that AIDS went improperly treated for so long is because the behaviors that spread the disease went unidentified. If we still had "sex between men" or "trade" rather than just "homosexuals," would the causes of the disease have been located more rapidly? What do y'all think?