Jake Bain opened up about his experience of sexual abuse (It Gets Better campaign screenshot/YouTube)
Jake Bain, the high-school football star who made headlines when he came out as gay, has opened up about being sexually abused by his father.
Bain became one of the first openly queer athletes at the NCAA Division I level when he came out publicly in 2018 when he was still a high school student. He ended his football career in 2019 and later came out as pansexual.
Now, Bain has opened up about his experience of sexual abuse in a statement shared on Twitter.
“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,” Bain wrote.
“To protect the confidentiality of those who are mentioned in these documents, I won’t release them to the public.”
Bain said he believes it should be “public knowledge” that his father was allegedly found to be “showering with other students”. He also accused his father of engaging in “inappropriate” email conversations with young people and said he had students visit his house for “sleepovers”.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that none of this behaviour is appropriate for any adult to be displaying,” Bain wrote.
This should be public knowledge… Warning, contains information about child abuse. pic.twitter.com/8lnFrtZc28
— Jake Bain (@jakebain17) October 29, 2020
He said that his father is still coaching basketball and urged anyone who is still employing him to terminate his contract immediately.
Jake Bain made global headlines when he came out in 2018.
In 2018, Bain was recruited by Indiana State and went on to play for the Sycamores as a freshman before he quit football in 2019, saying he wanted to focus on his studies.
Bain’s coming out story went global in 2018 when he told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that hiding his sexuality had made him less effective as a player.
“When you’re kind of half yourself, showing everyone half yourself pretty much, it weighs on you,” Bain said at the time.
“I definitely always tried to play to that macho status of a football player with a girlfriend, so I was definitely trying to cover all the bases so people wouldn’t find out.
“I had a couple girlfriends in high school at Burroughs. People used to always describe me as a ladies man. … I was still questioning what I really wanted.”
Rape Crisis England and Wales works towards the elimination of sexual violence. If you’ve been affected by the issues raised in this story, you can access more information on their website or by calling the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999. Rape Crisis Scotland’s helpline number is 08088 01 03 02.
Readers in the US are encouraged to contact RAINN, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800-656-4673.