Out College Football Player Jake Bain Sits Down With Ellen

Out college football player Jake Bain on ELLEN

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.

Gee, I wonder who Hunter could take with him…?

Jake Bain on ELLEN

(h/t Outsports)