A former Green Bay Packers player will speak to UW-Madison students about his experience as a gay man in the NFL at Memorial Union's Great Hall Thursday.
Esera Tuaolo, a member of the board of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation, played for the Packers from 1991 to 1992. He will speak at 7 p.m. as part of the Finding Common Ground: National Coming Out Week 2008 events hosted by UW-Madison's LGBT Campus Center.
Tuaolo retired from professional football in 1999 and two years later announced he is gay during an appearance on HBO's Real Sports.""
Tuaolo said people were ""surprisingly supportive"" after his announcement.
""There were even a handful of athletes that I played with at Oregon State that called me to show support,"" he said during a television interview.
Since 2002, Tuaolo has worked with the NFL to fight homophobia in the league. He published a personal account of his struggle with closeting his sexuality in a book titled ""Alone in the Trenches.""
