LGBT

Phil Hathaway

Transformative Life-Coach

I came out as a gay man almost forty years ago at nineteen, and I’m as relaxed and comfortable as an out-gay-man as I imagine it’s possible to be.

In a way, I guess I was blessed in life. You see, before I came out, though I knew I had to keep my ‘dirty little secret’ hidden, I always knew that I was OK on the inside. The task, as I grew through my teenage years, was to hold dearly onto that sense of OK-ness, despite the deeply negative and often shocking messages thrust upon me by the outside world.

Skip to the present day, I’m 58 and in a wonderful relationship of seventeen years with my partner, Andrew. We live in an amazing city – London and are both blessed to have loving and supporting families & friends.

During the 80s & 90s, I worked as a computer programmer and then, in 1995, I took a gigantic step to switch careers and opened and co-owned a large gay gym in central London called — Paris Gym. We ran that business for twenty years. At one point, the gym had one thousand members – 99% of them gay men. Paris Gym was a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, and I’ll forever remain deeply proud of our contribution to London’s gay community. These days, to continue contributing to the LGBT community, I run an LGBT Wellbeing Meetup group with over 2,500 members where I often coach people pro-bono. I don’t contribute as much as I’d like… but I try!

My main point here, though, is that I’m OK and I’ve always known that I’m OK. And yet I know there are many in the LGBTQ+ community who are not OK — or should I say, who don’t know that they’re OK or have never known that being OK and deserving of a rich and bountiful life is even on the agenda. And that’s awful. It does not have to be that way.

If you’re interested in a coaching conversation about life in general, about you as an LGBTQ+ person, or you somehow feel that you’d be more relaxed working with someone who’s openly gay and very proud of being gay – then please get in touch. We can talk about anything and everything — though my intention is always that our conversations are meaningful, hopeful and insightful. 

Phil x