This is nothing new. Even back at the height of the AIDS scare in the 1980s, there were “bug chasing” parties - where the uninfected would deliberately expose themselves to the disease, because you just weren’t cool as a homosexual unless you also had AIDS. Really, that was the reason.
You have a point there. Movies like Philadelphia and its "gay" propaganda predecessors made certain to glamorize the disease as some type of "martyrdom," and queers are absolutely addicted to attention, any attention.
Another fatalistic factor is in play here. Ronald G. Lee, in his essay "The Truth About the Homosexual Rights Movement," said that homosexual men have an overwhelming fear of getting old and becoming unattractive in the only activity which gives them "meaning." They would rather die young than get old and undesirable. He spoke of this from experience as a recovering homosexual. (Find the article and read it!)
I’m not saying it’s a mental illness....
but it’s a mental illness.