We may never know if Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner, who went by Christine Daniels after coming out as transgender, took his own life because of an identity struggle, or something else. But one thing is certain: The sports community will miss a respected colleague. Oh, and the LGBT community will mourn a loved one.
Glowing accounts of Penner are popping up all over the web. Less so is a frank discussion about whether Penner — declared dead on Friday from an apparent suicide — left this world identifying fully as man or a woman; and, thus, a precarious position to be writing about someone with the proper pronouns.
Back in 2007, we learned about Penner's transition to Daniels, which she called "a day I dreamt about for years." He would start living life as a woman, he told colleagues and readers. Support for his transitions was, by all accounts, immense.
But by October 2008, the 24-year veteran of the LAT appeared to be "withdrawing" from her transgender identity. The bylines under Christine Daniels disappeared; Penner's name returned. And Daniels, after taking a leave from the paper to undergo sexual reassignment surgery, returned without having anything done. Thereafter, Daniels stayed mum on the decision not to go post-op. It appeared, then, that Daniels was no more, and Penner the man had returned — in byline form, and every other as well.
What becomes a matter of semantics when writing about Penner is likely more deeply routed in his struggle with a transgender identity. The Times, which arguably knows Penner's wishes the best (Penner's brother and ex-wife work at the newspaper), addresses him as a man. But we'll address Penner the only way we know how: As a human being who never felt quite comfortable in his own skin. You'll be missed, friend.
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Here here, queerty. It's an awful sadness that this man lived as a woman only to find that he still suffered from severe unhappiness. Male or female, depression does not discriminate. I hope his family can heal in the knowledge that this person died knowing more about who he was more than many transgendered who went before him. (I'm referring to Mike as a man because he decided not to go post-op and returned to using male pronouns himself. I've never myself heard of a case like this, where a person doubts there transgender status but regardless this man's suicide is a terrible tragedy.)
may you rest in peace.
I think it's proper to refer to Daniels as a man and that doesn't have anything about the surgery (why are you people so obsessed about that?), but because the last we knew of his wishes, he identified as male or at least was living as one. I think your last sentence in the story pretty much sums it up pretty well.
We'll never know why he chose to leave, but it's hard to imagine that his gender dysphoria didn't play a part in his suicide. Transitioning in the media spotlight in the macho atmosphere of sports writing would have been one of the hardest things I can imagine a person doing.
From what I've heard unfortunately he cut all ties to his trans friends in the community after he detransitioned, so he was isolated from people who could've offered some kind of support for him in that part of his life.
I hope he's found peace where ever he is now.
It may only be coincidental that the LA Times was laying off right and left when Christine decided to return to being Mike, but…
What we need is someone who remembers the columns where she wrote about transitioning and ask if they noted a change in tone before they (and she) disappeared. We need to think of why there was no shame when Mike became Christine as there seemed to be when Christine became Mike again.