Everything I see says that Buckley was a really honorable man, simply a good person.

My impression is rather more mixed. Buckley, 1986:

But if the time has not come, and may never come, for public identification [of people with HIV], what then of private identification?

Everyone detected with AIDS should be tatooed in the upper forearm, to protect common-needle users, and on the buttocks, to prevent the victimization of other homosexuals.

Buckley, 2006:

Someone, 20 years ago, suggested a discreet tattoo the site of which would alert the prospective partner to the danger of proceeding as had been planned. But the author of the idea was treated as though he had been schooled in Buchenwald, and the idea was not widely considered, but maybe it is up now for reconsideration.

[Edited to fix paragraph break in that first Buckley quote.]