I am a millennial but my understanding is that many gay men scoffed at condom use pre-AIDS, in the 70s, the same way many today scoff at mask use. This is the way it's generally been described by older gay men I know and documentaries and movies. Not to necessarily equate the health risk between the two scenarios, just equating the public sentiment during the beginning stages of a major public health crisis.
It is why from my perspective the gay community at large has an intimate relationship with the phrase "new normal" because it seems like gay men's cultural understanding of what a healthy sex life looks like truly changed more or less permanently since the AIDS epidemic.