Jake Daniels recently opened up about his life before and after coming out, as well as how it transformed him as a person.
The 18-year-old English professional football player came out as gay on May 16, 2022, which is the same month that he made his professional debut for League One club. In a new interview with Attitude, he revealed about what his life was like before coming out, sharing:
“I was scared and didn’t know what the reaction was gonna be, so [my life was spent] just trying to be a person that I wasn’t as much as I possibly could, day-to-day.”
“I wanted to experiment, and I couldn’t. I didn’t want to do that secretly; I didn’t want to get found out. It was a lot of things that built up. And I was getting injured at football because of the stress. I wasn’t eating; I wasn’t drinking properly. Then I was out of football, so it was even worse. It became a cycle that I wanted to get out of,” Daniels recalled.
He continued,
“I was getting told to go and do tests for depression and anxiety, when inside I knew what the problem was. I was like, ‘I can’t miss any more football time’; I had to come out.”
The football player also shared how coming out changed him for the better, expressing:
“I think the biggest thing is my maturity — I’ve grown as a person. I’m able to handle different situations better than I feel like I would if I hadn’t come out.”
“If I hadn’t come out and had that experience I would have been a bit shy — in my shell. It’s definitely brought out a mature side of me. I feel like I’ve grown up quicker than I would have expected,” he further stated.
Since Justin Fashanu, Daniels is the first gay male professional to come out in British football.
Source: attitude.co.uk
Completely relate to having such terrible depression and anxiety. Happy much of his depression & anxiety subsided after coming out as gay. Unfortunately after I came out as gay I still struggled with both but they got much better once I was able to be honest.