THERE was much mocking this week of DUP MLA Trevor Clarke when he stood up in Stormont and admitted he didn't realise straight people could get HIV.
While it seems bizarre that in 2016 an elected representative should hold such a view, the mockery was entirely undeserved.
Mr Clarke was being honest and open and his views were entirely reflective of many people who either by generation or upbringing remain detached from real world problems.
I'll go further and say I was warmed by Mr Clarke's honesty and his willingness to admit his own failings when it comes to understanding HIV and AIDS.
It is only when people like the the 49-year-old MLA for South Antrim admit to being ignorant of the facts that proper education programmes can be put in place.
He was one of three DUP members who proposed a campaign for increased support of the charity Positive Life, which helps people living with HIV in Northern Ireland.
"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", he said.
His views may be 20 years out of date, but I'm fairly sure he's not alone.
Those of my parents' generation still have scant understanding of the illness, how it's transmitted and more to the point how it is treated when diagnosed at an early and manageable stage.
The stigma Mr Clarke talks of is one that still exists in Irish society and specifically Northern Ireland where people continue to be denied their rights on the grounds of sexual orientation.
His party colleague and former health minister Edwin Poots refused to believe gay men could safely give blood, despite being told by experts that there was no medical reason for the ban.
There was even less sense from his replacement Jim Wells which won't come as a great surprise. I would have expected better from Simon Hamilton, a man who looks like he furnishes himself with facts, but no, he once again kept the ridiculous ban in place.
It was only when replaced with the fast speaking, no nonsense - and to date most able minister of health - Michelle O'Neill that the the ludicrous ban was lifted.
Arlene Foster continues to be openly resistant to changing the law on same sex marriage to allow all members of our society equality.
It seems an odd argument to say the ongoing ban is protecting the sanctity of marriage at a time when divorce among heterosexual couples is at an all time high.
It is outdated laws and politics fuelled by misinformation and prejudice that creates and sustains the stigma Mr Clarke spoke of this week.
But educating people about the dangers of HIV and investing properly in treatment cannot simply be a case of saying we must fund this because, 'straight people get diseases too'.
According to the Public Health Agency (PHA) there were 94 new cases of HIV diagnosed in Northern Ireland last year.
There are 809 people now living with HIV in Northern Ireland, a rise of nearly 10 per cent compared with the previous year.
More worrying is that half of HIV diagnoses in Northern Ireland are made at a late stage, making it considerably harder to treat.
The reasons for this increase are many and varied but they all come back to one thing - and that's not whether the person diagnosed is gay, straight or bisexual - but proper education and prevention.
I grew up in the 80s when we were all led to believe that the world was going to end because of AIDS.
Adverts then featured tombstones and frightening music, tabloid newspapers called it the 'gay plague', a stigma that stuck despite gay women being the demographic at least risk of infection.
People died of AIDS then because treatment was inadequate and medical research had yet to make breakthroughs.
I've known one person in my life who died of an AIDS-related illness, and he wasn't gay but a victim of the 1990s Dublin heroin epidemic.
His death, with 2016 standards of medical care, may have been preventable or at least his life considerably extended.
That's why education is needed and that's also why rather than mock Trevor Clarke's honest admission we should be welcoming a proposal to properly fund awareness campaigns that reach out to all.
There should be no shame in learning and there's no shame in admitting you were wrong.
