Arts & Entertainment

College football player recounts public coming out story on ‘Ellen’

Jake Bain and his boyfriend also receive a special gift

Published

8 years ago

January 8, 2019

**Jake Bain** on ‘Ellen.’ (Screenshot via YouTube)

Jake Bain’s decision to come out at a school assembly, which was captured on video, at John Burroughs High School in Missouri was a personal achievement but he unexpectedly gained attention from more than just his classmates.

Bain’s story gained traction nationally and now, one year later, he is playing Division 1 football at Indiana State University. He appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to discuss what coming out so publicly was like.

DeGeneres notes that Bain looked nervous during his speech and Bain says he was.

“I had a lot of nerves coming out because, at that time, there weren’t very many out, openly gay football players,” he says.

Bain told DeGeneres that after coming out he decided to be open from the very beginning of college.

“Even before I committed there, I talked to the coach about my sexuality and that I wanted to be openly gay,” Bain said. “He assured me from the very beginning that I was gonna be accepted by the community at Indiana State and that my teammates were gonna treat me just like anybody else on the team.”

Bain’s boyfriend Hunter Sigmund was also in the audience. Bain says he and Sigmund clicked at a party and have been dating for two years. DeGeneres, who famously gives lavish donations and gifts to guests, wasn’t able to give Bain a gift as per NCAA rules. However, the show found a loophole and chose to give Sigmund a week-long vacation hinting that he should take Bain along.

Watch below.

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Online Culture

Clavicular charged in alleged rape of teenage influencer

Online personality’s real name is Braden Peters

Published

19 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Joe Reberkenny

Braden Peters a.k.a. "Clavicular" (Screen capture via NBC News/YouTube)

Online personality Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, has been accused of rape.

According to NBC, Aleksandra Vasilevna Mendoza, an 18-year-old influencer known online as Alorah or Alorah Ziva, accused Peters of sexual assault, and the case is making its way through the court system.

The alleged incident occurred on May 23, 2025, when Mendoza was 17.

According to a criminal complaint from the Chatham (Mass.) Police Department, Peters called her an Uber to his family’s home. Once there, he allegedly got her drunk on vodka while they livestreamed on Twitch and then raped her. His mother and grandmother were allegedly in the house.

The documents allege Clavicular committed rape, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, and procuring and providing liquor to a person under 21.

According to court documents acquired by NPR, Mendoza began communicating with Peters on Instagram, where he paid her to appear on his livestreams to help her “make her name known on social media.”

According to those documents, Peters arranged for the minor to come to Cape Cod home to participate in a videostream for his 437,000 followers on Kick, 1.2 million followers on TikTok, and more than 1 million followers on Instagram.

At his home, Peters allegedly instructed Mendoza to say she was 18 on his videostream and to claim the alcohol on camera was water instead of vodka. Mendoza said she felt peer-pressured to drink the spirit and that she became noticeably intoxicated after a couple of drinks.

The allegations go on to state that after stopping the stream, Peters and Mendoza kissed on a couch and then had sex in his bed without her consent. Mendoza said she did not receive a sexual assault forensic exam after the incident. NPR does not name alleged victims of sexual assault.

The charges come months after Mendoza sued Peters in Miami, accusing him of sexual battery in connection with the events of May 2025. The civil lawsuit also separately alleges that he injected her face with a non-FDA-approved fat-dissolving substance during a November livestream in Florida.

Peters is known for his “looksmaxxing” concept of vanity, which is at the core of his online presence. The “looksmaxxing” culture he has helped cultivate combines elements of incel culture and heterosexuality, with the stated goal of attracting the opposite sex. He has gone as far as to say he has undergone “bonesmashing,” or hitting his own face with a hammer; taken anabolic steroids to more rapidly grow muscle; and used crystal meth as an appetite suppressant.

At the same time, looksmaxxing has been described as having elements of homoeroticism, with “looksmaxxers” appearing more concerned with impressing other men than women. Peters has multiple times pointed to openly gay actor Matt Bomer as the gold standard for male facial aesthetics.

Peters’s arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 14.