A couple of years ago, after I gave up some of my community voluntary work to enable me to concentrate on coming to terms with my gay sexuality, I started going to Evening Mass on a Tuesday.

This weekly ritual has taken on special significance in my life because my wife, who is not a Catholic comes with me and we sit together and hold hands during the short 30 minute service.

I have worked hard to reconcile my Catholic faith to my new found acceptance that I am as God made me and it is possible to be Gay and Catholic, and much to my surprise, Gay and Married (Heterosexually).

My journey to self acceptance is not a road to recovery – I have not been ill – I have been traumatised in the past by fear, isolation and self-rejection of a major element of what makes me special in the world.

I have discovered, through Integral Coaching, that in accepting my sexuality, I do not have to give up or lose another element of my truth i.e. my faith or my marriage.

Tuesday Mass has helped me to see that all elements of my truth are closely integrated and compatible in ways that I have spent a vast amount of my life, thinking they were not.

If like me, you have rejected an element of your truth, find some space (religious or otherwise) and a hand to hold so that you can bring yourself fully to the world.

My next blog will be: Demis Roussos

William Defoe