I remember the "Gay Related Stress Disorder" crap from the time, blech.
No, it wasn't "mainstream" but neither was it "only a tiny fringe", because the psychosomatic dingbats are ALWAYS looking for something to pin that on to make them seem legitimate, instead of being the dingbats they are
Plus of course, there was the whole nasty bigotry issue about AIDS...so it was, for the scumbags and morons "
more proof of the pudding that gays are abnormal deviants". Or that homosexuality could be cured with psychotherpay etc :/
Talking about the very early part of the AIDS outbreak, by way,
long before HIV was identified and by time death toll had hit about 100, support of any psychological cause had evapourated except for the kooks. Problem was they were still suggesting it was mental after 20 or so had died, iirc
You will always find it hard to find the evidence of such stupid or nasty crap versus the discoveries/awards etc, because it is embarassing to show the screw ups so people hide such if they can,
and it's about the "professional classses" (who can and routinely do get away with crimes and screw ups that would get anyone else jailed or ruined),
and the subject of bringing up such gaffes doesn't make folk money
Gross stupidity, corruption, abuse etc regarding AIDS, syphilis and ME (plus osme other illnesses) are very telling indictments of how Human Society behaves and that scumbags are just as often to be found with PhDs, MDs etc as anywhere else in society, alas.