Watch: British Headmaster Tells Students 'I Am Happily Gay' in Moving Video

A headmaster at a prestigious private school in England came out to students during a virtual school assembly on Monday, the Daily Mail reports.

Nicholas Hewlett, 41 years-old, is headmaster at St. Dunstan's College in Catford, approximately ten miles southeast of London. Hewlett marked the start of LGBTQ History Month by telling students about a former teacher in the 1980s who was criticized for being gay, saying that the school had come so far as to now have an openly gay headteacher. He said, "I, as the headmaster, can be comfortable to share with you today that I am happily gay and in a same sex relationship."

Hewlett encouraged students to be true to themselves, and to allow others to do the same, adding that it is also "okay not to know who you are just yet." Furthermore, he added, LGBTQ identity should "never be seen as a barrier to success," that it should not be stigmatized or be controversial in this day and age.

The story to which Hewlett referred to is that of Martin Preston, the Daily Mail notes, a Baptist minister and Anglican priest who taught religious education from 1960-1980 and was outed by an editor for the magazine Private Eye. Hewlett shared that students rallied around Preston, subverting the anti-LGBTQ views of the then-headmaster, and noted that Preston died last month at age 89. Preston, Hewlett said, "[would] have been delighted" that this was the start of LGBTQ month at the school.

Prior to Hewlett's announcement at the virtual school assembly, he told The Times, "My only regret is not doing it earlier, because seven years of children will have gone through the school without the benefit of a role model.

"The message is simply have the courage to be true to yourself.

"There will be kids who are struggling with their own sexuality and who would benefit from knowing that you can be happy and gay, and I have a privileged position to show them that.

"I felt that I owed it to the pupils to be open and courageous too. I am inspired by them."

Watch his touching address below: