FEBRUARY 25.2006 • Q-NOTES
Triangle Area
15
riangle area
Chapel Hill man claiming
to be Native American
author actuaiiy former
gay porn writer
'Nasdijj' actually Timothy Barrus
CHAPEL HILL — At press time the loca
tion of writer Timothy Barrus, a one-time
resident of Chapel
Hill, remained un
confirmed. Barrus
captured national
media attention in
early February after
it was revealed that
the former gay
porn writer was
actually masquer
ading as Native
American writer
Timothy Bonus
Nasdijj.
As Navajo writer Nasdijj, Barrus
authored three critically-acclaimed books,
among them “The Blood Runs Like a River
Through My Dreams,” which allowed him to
capture a PEN Award for minority writers.
A post on Nasdijj’s website in response
to email messages from Raleigh’s The News
& Observer, Barrus avoided questions about
why he adopted a pseudonym.
“The real scandals are racism, poverty,
disease, AIDS, FAS [fetal alcohol syn
drome], autism, a medical system that is a
train wreck, an environment that can bare
ly breathe and a war that is a self-created
nightmare,” the email said. “lournalists
need to focus on the real problems.” That
was shortly followed by a second email:
“Like the culture of celebrity that creates a
society of indifference.”
Linder his pseudonym, Barrus claimed to
be a part Navajo Native Anerican who was
raised in poverty, orphaned at a young age
and later adopted two sons. BaVrus/Nasdijj’s
story indicates one son died of AIDS and the
other suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome.
According to various reports, the truth is
vastly different: his parents weren’t Native
American, they didn’t die when he was
young and actually raised him in Lansing,
Mich. There is also no record of him ever
adopting children.
According to an AP report, the publish
er of two memoirs by Nasdijj says that it
will no longer ship his books and would
accept returns of copies from book sellers.
“This looks pretty conclusive,”
Ballantine spokeswoman Carol Schneider
said after The News and Observer of Raleigh,
N.C., reported that Nasdijj’s Social Security
number did in fact match Barrus, who had
previously written book reviews for The
News and Observer.
The two memoirs, “The Boy and the
Dog Are Sleeping” and “Geronimo’s
Bones,” had few copies in print, Schneider
said. “The Boy and the Dog are Sleeping,"
published in 2003, won a PEN/Beyond
Margins award. A paperback edition of
“Geronimo’s Bones,” came out last fall.
Nasdijj emerged in 1999 with an article
in Esquire about his adopted son, a Najavo
named Tommy Nothing Fancy and the
boy’s death from fetal alcohol
syndrome. The article was a
finalist for a National
Magazine Award and led to a
■ book contract with Houghton
Mifflin.
Esera Tuaolo back in
spotlight with new book
DURHAM — Former Carolina Panthers
player Esera Tuaolo, who served as Grand
Marshall of N.C. Gay Pride held in Durham
in 2004, is back in the media eye with the
release of his autobiography “Alone in the
Trenches.” Co-written with John Rosengren,
the book tells the agonizing and compelling
tale of a dirt-poor Samoan immigrant who
won a football scholarship to Oregon State,
played in the Super Bowl and then made a
life-changing decision that ultimately saved
his life, his family and his religious faith.
Tuaolo’s book takes the reader on a
journey, where one will see and hear: a
nine year-old Esera, kneeling in a banana
batch, desperately praying to God to take
away his “curse,” a brutal murder, one of
many violent actions that will forever
change Esera and his relationships, and a
brilliant and brave athlete, singing the
National Anthem, but too afraid to look at
the camera or crowd.
At its heart, Tbalo’s story also exposes
the behind-the-scenesworld of profession
al football and what happens on the field
Former Panthers
player Esera
Tuo^.
and in the locker room.
It is a world where
nationally-recognized
players attend conferences on Christian
prayer and preachers remind that homo
sexuals are sinners, damned to hell. A
deeply religious man, Tuaolo often sat in
silence, pinned by his players’ hatred for
his hidden identity. Knowing that his
career would end if he were discovered.
Hiaolo’s story is rife with heartbreak
and, ultimately, hope. While keeping his
identity secret, his beloved older brother
and idol, TUa, died of AIDS, having never
told his friends and loved ones that he was
gay. Tuaolo would eventually love a man of
a different culture, a native of Minnesota,
with whom he would adopt Samoan twins
and begin a new life.
As TUaolo puts it: “I am just your typi
cal gay Samoan ex-nose tackle who would
like to break into, show, business.”
Sat March 4TBear Rugby Partv^CBl7(M
Charlotte Royals bar'night^chariSroyai?^
Country Night Ealry
Sun March 5 - Oscar Party - Win DVD’s - most picks
Sat March 11 - Mr. FLEX Contest
Categories: BEAR, Leather, Western
Onstage question. Category Wear & Shirtless
Crowd votes winner
Sat March 18 - Bear411 Party - come see if the guy
matches the picture
Sat March 25 - Tarheel Leather Club - TLC - Mardi
Gras Party - free beads - maybe
mondays - cheap drink s - $1.25
tuesdays - Karaoke - 9:30pm-till
Wednesdays - Country music 8-tiil
■Trailej“ “
Sundays -Tree Pool All Day - open 2-2
Raleigh’s longest running T-Dance
9:30-tili DRAG QUEEN Karaoke
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