I HAD an ok upbringing but I knew from high school that I was different – I didn’t feel that I fitted in. I didn’t know what was going on. I think it was at about 14 I started having feelings for guys.

At the time I was living in Cwmbran with my mum and dad and I shut myself away - the only people I spoke to was my family. I had female friends, but never found them attractive or liked them. I came out when I was about 17, and as a result I moved with my dad down in Newport.

At the time, it was daunting. There was no information around as section 28 was still enforced. Section 28 was a government legislation that prevented schools from promoting homosexuality and raising awareness within schools. Looking at it now, if that information had been there then, my coming out would have been a lot better.

I hit a downward spiral, not understanding what was going on with myself, my emotions or my sexual feelings. I was still unsure about myself and ended up being in a relationship with a woman for about nine months when I was 18 or 19.

The relationship was sexual – I did have feelings for her, but it didn’t feel right to me. It wasn’t what I wanted. After nine months, I ended it and realised that I was gay.

When I moved to Newport, I got mixed with the wrong crowd and was addicted to drugs for eight years. I was 19 at the time and spent a year taking drugs not very rarely. Then, when I was about 20 or 21, I started taking more and more drugs. At the worst time, I was taking speed every single day. When I first started, a £5 bag of speed would last me a week or two weeks. It got to a point where I was spending £100 or £120 a week on speed.

I have an addictive personality and took them because they kept me going. For about seven years of my life, I don’t remember much because of how many drugs I was taking. That is one of the things I regret.

I always think, if there was support when I came out as gay, would I have taken that road? Support would have been key, not just from family and friends but also within education. There was nothing.

Looking now to back then, I am glad section 28 is gone and schools and colleges are allowed to put information out there. If that support can help one person, then I think it is worthwhile.

My ex at the time was involved in Coleg Gwent and was part of the students’ union. He knew something needed to happen so he encouraged me to enrol in one of their courses. I went over and found out more about the students’ union, which was my hook.

Once I enrolled in college to study ICT, my ex told me I was liable to be put in for a drugs test within the first few months – that is not their policy, but that is what they told me and I stopped instantly. It was a big struggle and the support I got from Coleg Gwent was amazing.

I was 27 when I went into college and, by the end of the first term, I was fine and doing my lessons properly. I became the LGBT students’ union officer and to me it was like I was able to give the support I never had. It was the best feeling ever, to be there for students and staff.

I was encouraged to stand for students’ union president and won that election. As it was a full-time job, I was able to support students a lot more. I introduced the diversity roadshow, to celebrate equality and diversity, and that it is still now in place three or four years after I left.

I blame college for me being political. I stood for a second term for president and won again. I don’t think I will ever forget those couple of years at college. If it wasn’t for college, and the support of the people around me, I don’t think I would have come off drugs and I would possible be dead now.

It is a very special time of my life. I can’t never repay them – I had no belief in myself and they made me believe in myself.

I then started working for Coleg Gwent for a few months before getting a job working for Communities First back in 2015.

Back in 2015, I launched the ‘Take my blood’ campaign. At the time, there was a 12-months blood donation ban for any bisexual or gay man.

The rules came from the 1990s, when there was the stigma of HIV being associated with gay men. I was lobbying anyone who would listen to me, telling them how can you say that a gay or bisexual man in a faithful relationship can’t donate blood for 12 months, yet a heterosexual person can sleep with two or three people in one night and then go donate blood, how is that morally right? It wasn’t right.

I was sent to represent the Welsh LGBT community in a review down in London, where I put forward recommendations. The law has been changed and it has now been lowered to three months.

Rainbow Newport came after what happened in Orlando in June 2016 – when 49 people of our community went out one night and never returned home. After speaking to people in Newport, we arranged a vigil outside the civic centre to send a message of solidarity to Orlando. I then made a promise that I would get something for the community in Newport.

We got together and decided to start meeting monthly. We then decided to have an information day with speakers – it went from an information day to a conference. The feeling of walking into that hall and seeing everyone… I would relive that day tomorrow if I could.

February 2, 2017, is when Rainbow Newport started to grew and fly. That was the day after our conference, and I had a call from Newport City Council and started to work with them. Since then, we have set up a collection of more than 100 LGBT books in the library. We now have two coffee clubs and are doing a lot more. We have things going on every single week in Newport now.

The community feels more of a family now – which is my ultimate of goal of Rainbow Newport.

The role of Rainbow Newport is to make more people more socially active. In south east Wales, there are not many LGBT groups and we have people coming from Abergavenny to Ebbw Vale to our coffee club.

It could take a few years but my ultimate goal would be to have an equalities and diversity information hub. It will take a while and I would need to apply for funding, but that is another angle I want to take.

Being gay in Newport now is a lot better than it was 10 years ago, but there are still issues facing the community. We still get hate and people are still stigmatised for being gay. But me being gay brings no harm to any other person – what I get up to in my bedroom, it is my business.

Seeing how some politicians react towards the transgender community, I worry for the transgender community more than anyone else. Back in the 1980s, lesbians and gays were ridiculed and made feel worthless, they were made feel like vermin. The struggles they faced are the struggles facing the transgender community now. For me, I have a responsibility to be there for the transgender community and stand up for them.