He was prompted to come out after receiving a life-saving liver transplant following a four-year illness, he said.

He described that time in his life as "awful", as his illness appeared as his mother was dying of lung cancer.

But as Weston was recovering in hospital, he was inspired by the biopic Milk, in which Harvey Milk – the first openly gay politician in the US – tells his friends they must come out because the more of them that do so, the less people will be "afraid."