4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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>> GAY FOOTBALL PLAYER
Former pro lineman shares story
He won the Pac 10's Morris trophy, played nine years as a defensive lineman in the NFL, and went to Super Bowl XXXIII, but concealing his homosexuality was a game Esera Tuaulo was losing.
Born and raised on Oahu Island in Hawaii. Tuaolo started his football career by moving to California during high school. From there, he played for Oregon State University and continued to keep his sexual orientation private. Tuaolo was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1990 and still fought to keep his homosexual a secret from his team and family.
Tuaolo recalled the difficulty he had in pretending to be straight. He said it was horrible to listen to coaches and teammates berating gay men, calling them "faggots," and pretending he felt the same.
"I wanted to hide and kick myself,
"Huaoolo. "I didn't want
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publicity and I was so afraid that someone was going to out me"
Tuaolo now serves as an educator, touring the country to speak about homosexuality On Tuesday night, Tuaolo spoke as a happy, enthusiastic gay man wanting others to understand how homosexuality has shaped his life, but has not defined it.
Tuaolo, who suffered from depression, turned to alcohol to help with the pressures he faced as a gay man in a macho sport.
He came out to his family, and everyone else, soon after he met his partner, Mitchell Wherley, ten years ago.
"I didn't want to have to lie anymore." Tinola said. "It was a huge burden that came off, but when I stepped up on the scale, I was still 310 pounds."
Tuaolo's humor kept the audience entertained as he spoke about who he was now. A husband and father of two, Tuaolo enjoys his family and friends and is starting his career as a singer. He began "tuesday night by singing "Arms of an Angel" as he walked up and down the aisle, Super Bowl ring shining on his right hand, Tuaolo said he hoped to educate players and coaches about other gay athletes and deal with negative attention and stereotypes.
"I think that once you start to educate people on trying to eliminate those negative words, that's when you grow as a society." Tuaoloa said.
Students at the event responded positively to what tuaolo had to say about acceptance.
"It's always interesting when you hear someone talk about their real life," said Nathan Markley, Wellington senior. "He was really honest and open, and his story's a unique one."
Tauolo closed the evening by singing "Imagine All the People," signing his book "Alone in the Trenches," and encouraging the audience to "spread the love."
"I think it needs to be said," Spriggs said. "And especially coming from him people will listen."
Kansan staff writer Katy Blair can be contacted at kblair@kansana. com.
Student Union Activities sponsored the event after one student brought the idea to their attention. Tiffany Spriggs, Princeton, W.Va., graduate student, said she felt it was important for Tuauolo to speak because homosexuality was taboo in athletics, especially for men.
Edited by Stacey Couch
>> NASA
NASA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Astronaut Lisa M. Nowak works with the Mobile Service System (MSS) and Caramadii2 controls in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station while Shuttle Discovery was docked to the station in July, 2013. A was charged yesterday with attempted murder.
Astronaut charged with attempted murder
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ORLANDO, Fla. — She was the Robochick. He was Billy-O.
According to police, her obsession with him led her to drive 900 miles from Houston to Orlando, bringing with her a trenchcoat and wig, armed with a BB gun and pepper spray, and wearing a diaper to avoid bathroom breaks on the arduous drive.
Once in Florida, Lisa "Robochick" Nowak apparently confronted the woman she believed was her rival for the affections of William "Billy O" Oefelein. And this tawdry love triangle has one more twist — it involves two astronauts.
Nowak, 43, a married mother of three who flew on a space shuttle in July, was charged with attempted murder, accused of hatching an extraordinary plot to kidnap Colleen Shipman, who she believed was romantically involved with Ofefein, a space shuttle pilot.
Specifically, police said. Nowak confronted Shipman, who was in her car at the Orlando airport, and sprayed something at her, possibly pepper spray.
At first the astronaut was charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts. Then prosecutors upped the charge to attempted murder, basing it on the weapons and other items they said police had found with Nowak or in her car: pepper spray, a BB-gun, a new steel mallet, knife and rubber tubing.
Nowak was released from jail on $25,500 bail and ordered to wear a monitoring device.
Her lawyer, Donald Lykkebak,
took issue with the most serious
charges.
"In the imaginations of the police officers, they extend these facts out into areas where the facts can't be supported," Lykebak said.
NASA put Nowak on a 30-day leave and removed her from mission duties. Agency spokesman John Ira Petty at Johnson Space Center in Houston said he was concerned about the people involved and their families. But, he added, "We try not to concern ourselves with our
employees' personal lives."
The details of the relationships of all three were unclear. Nowak and Oeilefnie, who both live in the Houston area, had trained together as astronauts, but never flew into space together. Shipman, 30, works at Patrick Air Force Base near Kennedy Space Center.
Earlier, Nowak was quoted by police as saying she and Oefelein had something "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship"
Neither Oeeleim nor Shipman could be reached for comment Tuesday, nor could Nowak's husband be found.
But police found letter in Nowak's car that "indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oeefele, the arrest affidavit said. And Nowak had copies of e mails between Shipman and Oeefele.
"Personally, Lisa is an extremely caring and dedicated mother to her three children," the statement said. "Considering both her personal and professional life, these alleged events are completely out of character and have come as a tremendous shock to our family."
Accustomed to wearing astronaut diapers during the space shuttle's launch and return to Earth, Nowak wore them on the drive to Orlando so she would not have to make bathroom stops, police said.
Nowak and her husband separated several weeks ago after 19 years of marriage, according to a statement put out by her family.
There, according to police, Nowak donned a wig and trench coat, boarded an airport shuttle bus with Shipman and followed her to her car. Then, crying, Nowak sprayed a chemical into the car.
A police affidavit made public Tuesday said Nakaw had "stealthily followed the victim while in disguise and possessed multiple deadly weapons."
Shipman drove to a parking lot booth and sought help.
The affidavit said the circumstances of the case "create a well-founded fear" and gave investigators "probable cause to believe that
lykkbak said that Nowak only wanted to talk to Shipman. Asked about the weapons, he said, "You can sit and speculate all day."
A vague profile began to emerge of Nowak, who graduated from high school in Maryland in 1981 and the U.S. Naval Academy in 1985. She has won various Navy service awards.
Nowak, in a NASA interview last year, before her mission aboard Discovery, as well as in an interview with ABC News, spoke about the strain her career placed on her family. She has twint 5-year girls and a son who is 14 or 15.
In a September interview with Ladies' Home Journal, Nowak said her husband, Richard, "works in Mission Control, so he's part of the whole space business, too. And supportive also."
Mrs. Nowak intended to murder Ms. Shippman."
The judge also ordered Nowak to stay away from Shipman and to wear an electronic monitoring device upon returning to her home in Houston.
On Tuesday, a Houston neighbor, Bryan Lam, told The Associated Press that in November he heard the sounds of dishes being thrown inside the house and the police came.
"It's a sacrifice for our own personal time and our families and the people around us," she said in the NASA interview, "But I do think it's worth it because if you don't explore and take risks and go do all these things, then everything will stay the same."
"I've seen them arguing before' he said.
In an in-flight news conference aboard Discovery last summer, she talked about waiting nearly 10 years for her first space flight. "It's been a long wait, but it's worth the wait," she said.
NASA astronauts often have nicknames, at least among their crewmates and Mission Control. Aboard Discovery last July, Nowak and cremate Stephanie Wilson were known as "the Robochicks" because they operated the shuttle's robotic arm that checked the spacecraft for damage.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Esera Tuaole, retired professional football player, speaks in Woodford Audunton Tuesday night. Tuaole, who announced his homosexuality shortly after retiring from the NFL, spoke about the difficulties he faced as a gay man in what he called the hyper-masculine culture of professional football.
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