In the mid-2000s, the Thursday section was even nicknamed “Thursgay Styles” by the creative underclass, for its effete coverage of men’s fashion and unabashed objectification of the male body. Maybe it was the mandate to cover fashion, night life and subculture, but by the time the Styles section ran its first report on a same-sex commitment celebration in 2002 (two years before same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts), its gay-centric reputation was hard to dispute.

But that wasn’t always the case.

At the dawn of the Reagan years, when “Dynasty” introduced one of the first gay characters on prime-time TV, but before Madonna released “Like a Virgin,” the Styles of the Times page (yes, it was a single page back then) ran just three articles between 1981 and 1983 that examined gay life in general. That’s not counting, of course, the (often closeted) gay characters who flitted in and out of “Notes on Fashion,” a weekly column by John Duka, a reporter who went on to help start the publicity firm KCD, before dying from AIDS-related complications in 1989.

Using language that betrays the era’s ignorance and discomfort with gay sex, the first Styles piece in that time period, published on May 30, 1983, explored the “special emotional difficulties of AIDS victims.” While other sections of the paper covered the science of the disease and, to a much lesser extent, the political ramifications, Styles addressed its emotional toll. In addition to the shock and stigma of a diagnosis, the piece also touched on the fear that people with H.I.V. could somehow “spread AIDS to family, friends or partners.” A second article covered the second annual convention of what is now known as PFLAG (the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) in New York, “where 125 parents of homosexuals from all over the country gathered” to combat prejudice.

But it is a third article, “Of Herpes, AIDS and Fear Of Sex,” that reveals the most about the Style section’s coverage of queer people in the early 1980s. Published on July 18, 1983, under the rubric “Relationships,” it begins with a pointed question: Has the fear of AIDS and herpes led to a decline in promiscuity? Granted, the thesis does adhere to a certain editorial logic. It’s the kind of “if true” story that editors — such as I (an editor at Styles) — might propose based on a hunch: If AIDS has led to a fear of sex, then it stands to reason that some people, especially gay men, are having less sex.

The problem was, there was no definitive evidence to support that claim, only the opinions of public health officials who, when asked, were quick to poke holes in the story. They invoked the word “speculation” three times. A hospital supervisor in Brooklyn was even quoted saying the opposite: “We are continuing to see tremendous amounts of sexual activity among adolescents.”

So why was this piece published in the first place? One could argue that The Times, which proudly bills itself as a family newspaper, is puritanical to a fault. But it also has to do with simple arithmetic: In 1983, there were few, if any, openly gay reporters on staff, and hardly anyone to challenge stereotypes about gay people. It would take until the next decade before the floodgates would open at The Times, and openly gay men and women would assume positions of leadership in the newsroom. But even that, more than two decades later, hasn’t stopped many gay people from debating what, exactly, Styles — and the rest of the Times — gets right about their lives.