Out former college football player Jake Bain (image via Instagram) Jake Bain, the Missouri high school football star who made headlines in 2017 after coming out as gay, and later became one of the first openly gay Division I team athletes in history when he matriculated at Indiana State in 2018, issued some disturbing allegations in his Instagram Stories on Thursday. Bain, who retired from football after his freshman year, posted a statement alleging that his father – who has apparently worked as a high school basketball coach for years – had abused Bain and “many others.” Bain’s statement via Instagram:
“I have in my possession over 20 pages of court documents, detailing the abuse that me, and many others endured at the hands of my father. To protect the confidentiality of those who are mentioned in these documents, I won’t release them to the public.”
“However, I believe that [it] should be public knowledge that while working as a high school basketball coach at both Westminster Christian Academy, and MICDS, two well known private schools in Saint Louis, MO, my father was found to be showering with other students, emailing inappropriately with students about things a coach or teacher should never be talking to kids about, and would have students to his house for ‘sleepovers.’”
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that none of this behavior is appropriate for any adult to be displaying. To my knowledge, my father is still coaching basketball at the AAU level in Saint Louis, so I urge anyone who is either employing him to coach, or allowing him to use their facilities, to please stop, so this behavior does not continue.”
(screen capture via Instagram/Jake.Bain) Last May, Bain shared that he is a survivor of sexual abuse, writing, “To those of you who are victims of sexual abuse, I’m with you. I know how you may be feeling. I want you to know that you are not alone.” “Waking up to a sweat-filled bed, left with the fleeting thoughts and feelings of what we had to endure and carry on with us,” he continued. “These scars of which I fear most, are also a constant reminder that I got through it. I persevered. We are warriors, and just when you think you can’t do it anymore… fight a little longer. Reach out to others for help. Don’t be afraid to feel vulnerable. Know that this was not your fault, and does not define who you are.”
After coming out in 2018, Bain went on to famously take his boyfriend to the prom and even appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show where the talk show host honored him for his courage in coming out. Bain’s post did not identify his father by name, but a report at Kenneth in the (212) said his father is Eric Bain. “Although the allegations are somewhat fuzzy — where are these court documents filed? are the police involved? is there an ongoing investigation of his father? — they are clearly disturbing,” wrote Kenneth. “According to Eric Bain’s LinkedIn, he currently works in training at the St. Louis Basketball Academy.” Jake Bain recently came out again, this time as pansexual. He’s currently pursuing a degree in sports psychology. Here’s the report from 2018 when Bain came out as gay.
Out former college football player Jake Bain (image via Instagram) Jake Bain, one of the first openly gay Division I college football players, tells Men’s Health Magazine he’s “more at peace” since leaving the sport a year ago. Shortly after announcing he was ending his college football career last year, Bain also shared with his 38K Instagram followers that he was coming out (again) but as pansexual. In an Instagram post, Bain admitted that when he came out to his classmates in 2017 as a high school junior in Missouri during National Coming Out Day, he wanted to send a message that “it was okay to be themselves and do whatever you put your mind to.” At the end of that speech in front of a school assembly, his fellow students gave him a standing ovation. “It was me finally letting so much weight off my shoulders that I had been carrying for so long,” he says today. But over time he’d come to realize that “gender does not effect” who he feels attracted to and that “love is something deeper than simply what gender we were given at birth.” And so, he shared with his followers, “I am pansexual.”
But after the loss of a childhood friend, Bain realized he needed to “take a step,” recalibrate and “figure out what is was exactly I wanted to do.” Speaking to Men’s Health as part of The 2020 Project, which explores the lives of 20 different American 20-year-old men, Bain says he’s now studying to be a sports psychologist at North Carolina State University. He hopes to help other young athletes “find clarity” and perhaps some answers to other questions he has about his identity. Over the past year, the handsome college student has focused on his studies and dabbled in modeling, sharing several thirsty snaps on his Instagram.
This past July, he penned an essay for Teen Vogue chronicling his journey from coming out in high school to ‘here,’ and many of the ups and downs along the way. “I began receiving calls and messages from people all over the country who said I was able to give them courage to be themselves,” he wrote of the period after he came out. “I never imagined I’d be able to reach and inspire so many people.” But admitting it “wasn’t all rainbows,” he reflected on the “ton of hate” he received on and off the gridiron including becoming a target of the anti-LGBTQ Westboro Baptist Church. But when word got out that the hate group was coming to protest him, his school and community rallied to show their support.
Today, after years of making sports the focus of his life, he tells Men’s Health, “I certainly miss football sometimes.” But, he quickly adds, “I feel more at peace and I definitely am happier than I was a year ago.” (source: Men’s Health,Teen Vogue)
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• When Channing Tatum loses, we all win. The ‘Magic Mike’ star lost a game of Jenga, and so he had to post a photo of girlfriend Jessie J’s choosing. She has good taste.
Ellen DeGeneres sat down with out Indiana State University football player Jake Bain, who inspired the nation with his coming out speech during a high school assembly in St. Louis, Missouri, two years ago.
Jake chats with Ellen about his coming out experience, the support he’s received over the past two years, and his hopes to inspire other athletes in college sports to have the courage to also come out.
The handsome college freshman was emotional about meeting one of his idols, saying, “Can I first just say, before I came out, I used to watch your show, like, all the time, and it means so much to me to actually be here now.”
“You’ve done so much for the entire LGBT community, and humanity as a whole,” he continued. “It just means so much to me to be on your show.”
Ellen points up the good that Jake has done by coming out and hopefully giving other college athletes the courage to come out.
“It’s a really conflicting thing to feel really proud of yourself and good at something, and then in the back of your mind have shame or carry shame around,” said Ellen.
“If everyone had the courage to do what you did, then we wouldn’t have that homophobia, we wouldn’t have that fear,” she added. “And so, you’re going to inspire other people the way I inspired you.”
On top of doing great at Indiana State (full football scholarship, don’t you know?), the good news is he’s still with his high school boyfriend, Hunter Sigmund.
The boys see each other whenever they can since Hunter goes to school hours away at the University of North Carolina. So, Hunter tagged along for the Ellen appearance.
And you knew this was coming – since Jake can’t accept gifts due to NCAA rules, Ellen gives Hunter a 6-night vacay to Fiji.
Earlier this year I reported on the huge success and popularity of then-high school senior Jake Bain of St. Louis, who had come out as gay to his high school and found widespread acceptance.
As an out athlete, the talented football player received a scholarship and spot on the Indiana State University football team.
Flash-forward to today, where ISU freshman Jake seems to thriving in his new school and with his new teammates.
Outsports’ Jim Buzinski caught up with the handsome 19-year-old who’s showing the world you can be an out athlete and thrive.
Jake tells Outsports that his life at ISU is pretty much like every other freshman.
Even when he Facetimes with his boyfriend, Hunter Sigmund who’s in his freshman year at the University of North Carolina, Bain says he doesn’t feel the need to hide his relationship.
“There are times when we’ll be in the dorms playing video games and I’ll get a Facetime message from Hunter and I don’t get uncomfortable with that,” Bain shared with Outsports. “I don’t feel a need to go into a different room. Everybody knows. A lot of the freshman I’ve been dorming with have seen Hunter and know who he is.”
In fact, Hunter has already been to visit at ISU. Jake has introduced him to fellow football players and everyone is totally cool.
“Hunter came up to Indiana State and I was walking him around campus and passed some of the football guys and introduced Hunter to them and they all treated him like they would somebody’s girlfriend,” Bain said. “They were really nice.”
A post shared by Jake Bain (@jake.bain) on Aug 14, 2018 at 11:06am PDT
It’s easy to imagine that Jake is happy to settle into the role of college freshman after a year that included coming out to the world, attending his senior prom with Hunter, and seeing his entire community support him when the virulently anti-LGBT Westboro Baptist Church attempted to picket Jake at his high school.
Even as he handled all of that with a sense of confidence that would seem way beyond that of a 19-yeear-old, Jake doesn’t seem himself so much as an activist for the LGBT community but as “someone who is willing to be themselves and show everyone it’s ok to be yourself.”
”I try and not put the spotlight on me but instead on the LGBT community as a whole,” he told Outsports. “There’s bunch of people like me, but they’re just not comfortable being out.”
And for anyone who might have worried about Jake fitting in with his new team, he says it’s been exactly the opposite.
“Football is one of those unique sports where there is a true brotherhood that is made, especially when we’re around each other for so much of the day, it gives us a lot of time to really bond with each other.”
“A lot of people assume that because you’re playing a sport like football that there’s assumption that it’s a very masculine sport, and obviously it is, but it doesn’t mean that my teammates won’t be accepting of someone who is gay. It shows how the tide is turning and shows how we have something special here.
”Football gets that hard rep but I think it creates the biggest bond out of any of the sports I have played.”
Jake goes on to share that several players during practice have approached him to let him know they support him and definitely “have his back.”
About the biggest challenge Jake seems to be facing these days is a change of position on the team. As a high school player, Jake was a running back, but his new coaches like his size and speed, so they are training him to transition to defensive back.
Jake had some trepidation about the switch, but it seems to be working for everyone.
Hunter Sigmund (L) and Jake Bain (R) in their requisite senior prom pic
For the students dancing the night away at St. Louis’ John Burroughs High School senior prom, openly gay couple Jake Bain and Hunter Sigmund were nothing new to see. This was the twosome’s fourth school dance together.
Sigmund, a swimmer and water polo player told Outsports, “It was my fourth school dance with Jake and I couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend our last high school dance.”
As the school’s only openly gay couple, the students and faculty have treated the two athletes just like everyone else, says Bain.
“This is the second year he and I have gone together, as well as to our homecoming dance the past two years, so this wasn’t the first time,” Bain, the school’s high school football captain, said.
“We have been the only openly gay couple at Burroughs since I’ve been here, but it isn’t a problem at all at our school. People treat us the same. It is nice to be able to go to prom with whoever you want and not have to worry about what other people might think.”
When the hideously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church haters announced they would protest Jake for the national attention he garnered as an out star football player, the school, faculty and community rallied around him.
This fall will see Jake begin his college football career for Indiana State University while Hunter heads to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an honors student.
• With the new coming-out/coming-of-age gay dramedy Love, Simon opening this week, out director Greg Berlanti spoke candidly to NewNowNext about his own teen years as a closeted young gay:
“I can only imagine what I would be feeling right now if I was a 16-year-old watching people like Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy on TV.
“I wasn’t ready to come out in college or high school. I think the fear was similar, and putting on a brave face so people saw me as a happy kid next door. I had family that was close-knit, but that didn’t make me less terrified. I came out in my early 20s, around the dawn of the Internet exploding, which I think made people feel less isolated or alone.”
This seems like an amazing coming out story: Jake Bain is not only a star athlete/football player at John Burroughs High School in Missouri but has already signed to play football at Indiana State University next year.
Two autumns ago, he scored three touchdowns in the state title game, but on this October day, his senior season ended unceremoniously. So the running back walked off the field, seeking solace in a hug from his boyfriend.
“I did notice that moment, and knowing that was the last game of Jake’s career, I thought, ‘How lucky is Jake for that?’” said John Merritt, the football coach at John Burroughs. “And what does that say about our community, that they can both express themselves without any fear?”
Jake Bain is the best athlete at his high school. He’d be the best athlete at most high schools. As a sophomore running back, he was named the Class 3 Offensive Player of the Year in Missouri. As a sophomore! And after winning the state title, he was selected team captain for his junior and senior seasons. On Wednesday, Jake signed to play college football — he’s headed to Indiana State next year.
Listen to Bain and Hochman talk about his experiences in a podcast
He is openly gay.
“This is a kid who, in every traditionally stereotypical way, would not have been connected to that community,” said John Burroughs head of school Andy Abbott, “but in every authentic way, was and is.”
Jake seems like a really level-headed guy who folks naturally connect to.
It wasn’t all hugs and roses though. Jake endured his share of being called slurs on the football field and at one point he received tons of hateful text messages.
But he persevered and continues to be a leader and role model.
I really encourage you to read the full profile.
Check out this package by the local NBC affiliate:
