College basketball player Nathan Fort shares powerful coming out post after being raped

Fort wrote an emotional post about his refusal to be a victim

Basketball player Nathan Fort (Nathan Fort/Facebook)

A college basketball player who survived rape has shared his powerful coming out story after years of struggling with his sexuality.

Nathan Fort, who grew up in rural Arkansas, wrote an emotional post on OutSports that spoke about his refusal to be a victim and his courage in coming out after being plagued by class gossip and rumours.

In the piece Fort wrote that he would tell people at school that he was against homosexuality to "fit into the community", while he was later ostracised by classmates in junior high school.

When he showed promise as a high school basketball player, he made more friends and achieved a level of popularity, but said he still felt like an outcast, and wrote that at one particularly low point he contemplated taking his own life.

At college he began to explore his identity more freely, which led him to a gay club for the first time after he began attending Bethel College.

"I met a very nice guy who lived near me who wanted to take me out," he said. "We left the club together, my heart beating fast, excited and nervous about what the night might hold.

"We drove and we talked. It seemed like this was going to be my perfect first time with a guy.

"It wasn’t. He wrestled me out of the car. He sexually abused me. He drugged me. He raped me. He changed my life. It’s a struggle just to write a few lines about it, but it’s part of who I am now."

Fort said that he did not report the incident to anyone, and his alleged attacked was not charged with any crime.

After this experience Fort said he dated women again for a year before he found the courage to be his "true self" and tell his friends that he was gay, after which he felt compelled to tell his teammates and coaches as well.

"It turned out to be so much easier than I suspected,” he said. “I spoke to each teammate, one by one, and for the most part they have supported me. My coming out didn’t change the way the coaches treat me either; they consider me as any regular basketball player, not "the gay basketball player."

Fort, who later confirmed his story to The Independent, concluded the piece by encouraging anyone in a similar situation not to be held back by their fears of what other people think: "Because it’s your life, not theirs."

Read the entire piece on OutSports here

Anyone dealing with rape or sexual assault can contact the Rape Crisis helpline on 0808 802 9999 - for more information visit their website