May, speaking in 2011 – well before the release of hit biopic Bohemian Rhapsody – recalled how the AIDS crisis led to disgusting attitudes towards the gay community.
It was this misinformed stigma that made it “very difficult” for Mercury to publicly announce his diagnosis.
“I suppose there was an incredible fear of the unknown,” he told STV a few years ago.
“Suddenly there’s this thing walking the Earth and nobody knows where it’s come from and who it’s going to strike next.
“In the gay community it was absolutely horrific, of course – and you had this terrible stigma.
“There were people saying, ‘this is what the gay community deserves’.
“Horrific things were being said – almost like a ‘scourge being sent to punish people’. This is the sort of ignorance that was the climate at the time.”
Queen set up the Mercury Phoenix Trust, a charity that fights HIV/AIDS worldwide, after the death of Mercury in 1991.
FREDDIE MERCURY’S HEARTWARMING GENEROUS ACT REVEALED
“It was quite a big thing to even start the Mercury Phoenix Trust at that point,” May added.
“And quite brave of Freddie, realising he was slipping away – it had been difficult for him to announce what he was suffering from.
“But at that point he did, and he said, ‘I don’t want people to think I died of something else, I died of AIDS’.
“‘This is what it is, it’s time to gather together what it is we’re facing and the whole of humanity is facing.’”
May, Roger Taylor and Jim Beach set up the Mercury Phoenix Trust after a Tribute Concert for Mercury in 1992.
According to its website, it has provided over $17 million to over 1,000 projects in 56 countries.
Attention on Queen and Mercury – already iconic – has resurged in recent months following the success of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, in which Malek played the late singer-songwriter.
It was a huge hit; winning four Oscars and breaking box office records for its genre.
Bohemian Rhapsody is out now on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download.
Find out more about the Mercury Phoenix Trust here.