A former Australian Rules football player at Melbourne University, Beaton realised he was gay in his mid-teens. "I felt like such an outcast," he says in the video.

"I felt like if I was to come out and tell people that I was sexually attracted to men that I would be disowned and people would stop loving me," he said.

"It made me feel like it was wrong. So for years I hated myself. I hated who I was."

Beaton's fear of rejection plunged him into a deep depression. He engaged in self destructive behaviour, and drank excessively to "numb the pain".

Hiding his sexuality from his family, especially his twin brother Charles, was very hard.

"That was probably one of the most tiring things that one person could ever have to do," he said. "Hide every move, every text message, because it felt like it was the wrong thing to do to be gay."