Mr. Tiernan Brady:

Not having seen the specific storyline, I do not know. One of the great stories of the change in attitudes towards gay and bisexual people in Ireland was about visibility. People from all over the world are now coming to Ireland to talk to organisations such as GLEN about what happened. I could have been a criminal in 1993, while I was in college, and now I can be a full and equal citizen under the Constitution. That changed in 22 years, which, in terms of social progress, is radical. Lots of people come to ask us why, and I have always been convinced there is one answer, which is tied to HIV stigma. Visibility of people humanises the story, so that it is no longer about a thing but about people. It is not about "gay", as would have been the case in the 1980s. It is not about HIV but about a person living with HIV. The more visibility we can create through people who are brave enough to be out there in the public domain, those in the media who want to write stories about it or those who want to put it into "Emmerdale", the better. I would never underestimate the importance of putting the issue into a soap opera like "Emmerdale" to really get into the public consciousness. People can see the human face. The Irish story of the gay and lesbian experience can mirror the HIV stigma experience. As we create visibility, people see the person. That changes everything.