Northern Ireland politician ‘didn’t know that heterosexual people can contract HIV’
A Northern Ireland politician has admitted he didn’t know that heterosexual people can contract HIV – until he was educated about the virus by a charity.
The revelations from the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) Trevor Clarke came as Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLAs) debated calls for a new HIV awareness campaign yesterday (November 29).
Mr Clarke, the MLA for South Antrim, was one of three DUP members who proposed the motion calling for a new campaign to “promote awareness and prevention” of HIV and for increased support for the work of the HIV charity Positive Life, the BBC reports.
“When I came here in 2007, I would have dismissed the possibility that I would speak about HIV today because I was one of those who did not understand the stigma attached to it,” Mr Clarke said.
He continued: “I have to put on record my thanks to Jacquie Richardson from Positive Life. Meeting her for the first time was a turning point for me, having been ignorant of the fact that the disease also affects heterosexual people.
“For that reason, I have no difficulty supporting what the motion calls for. The work that Positive Life did in changing my opinion – not only my opinion but that of many others – helped to remove the stigma.”
Later in the debate, Mr Clarke clashed with People Before Profit MLA Eamonn McCann over a proposed amendment to the legislation which would see the campaign stress the disproportionate impact of HIV on gay and bisexual men.
Clarke argued that McCann’s amendment would add to the “stigma” surrounding the virus – a claim McCann described as “nonsense”.
Mr Clarke said: “I am not trying to get a rise out of Mr McCann when I say this, but I feel that his amendment, had he moved it, would have been unhelpful to people who, like me, were ignorant of the fact that this disease can affect heterosexuals.”
He added: “Maybe those who are bisexual or gay do have a statistically higher risk, but his amendment brought that into the equation and amplified it.”
“I think that we should talk about all who suffer with this condition; not just those who have the highest risk.”
Mr McCann hit back, saying Mr Clarke – whose party continues to oppose marriage equality in Northern Ireland – was making an “unconsciously homophobic intervention” by preventing the campaign from acknowledging gay and bisexual men’s specific needs.
A motion calling for a new campaign to promote awareness and prevention of HIV was eventually passed but without Mr McCann’s amendment that the campaign should highlight the increased risk faced by gay and bisexual men.
There was encouraging news for PrEP’s status in Northern Ireland, however – an Alliance amendment calling on the minister of health to bring forward proposals ensuring that PrEP will be made available on the same basis as the rest of the United Kingdom (should that ever happen) was also passed.
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