We’ve seen some strange story twists here at Outsports over the years. The whole Mike Danton saga comes to mind. But this one might take the cake. We reported 18 months ago that LA Times sportswriter Mike Penner had become Christine Daniels. Daniels wrote an LA Times column about it, was given a personal blog at the paper’s Web site, was part of the Out 100 last year and received tons of praise. Now word comes that Penner is putting Daniels (or at least her dresses) back in the closet and is now Mike Penner again.
I’m going to save my commentary until after we unearth more information, and we hope to have a full report later this week. Until then, we’d love to hear your thoughts about how this news makes you feel and what, if any, effect you think such a public re-transformation could have on gay and transgender rights.
on Oct 21st, 2008 at 8:03 pm
It’s his choice. As a member of the GLBT community, I stand for everyone having the freedom to make their own choices and be who they truly are. If Mike feels he’s Mike and not Christine, that’s his choice.
I just hope he’s not avoiding the transition out of fear.
on Oct 21st, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I`m for self determination in these matters. Be who you are, and it`s none of our business to criticize. I don`t see how this should have any effect on “gay and transgender rights.“ Transgender rights yes (because the trans haters who don`t even want to understand the issue will be revel in any excuse for their confusion and hatred}. But gay rights should have nothing to do with it.
on Oct 21st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I agree with Greg–I don’t really understand why this one situation should or does affect gay or trans rights in general.
on Oct 21st, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Well, to each their own. The only question I have is why did the “experts” let it get this far? Mike is going to have another long transition ahead and a lot of negative feedback from others. Obviously, I cannot walk in his shoes as a transexual so I hope everything goes well in his life and that people just leave him alone as he goes about his personal life.
on Oct 22nd, 2008 at 2:42 am
I met Christine at a friend’s house while watching football and we both shared a mutual dislike of Tommy Lasorda, so we had some common ground.
Best of luck to Mike > Christine > Mike, he’s a really good writer, I miss him on the Times sports page.
on Oct 22nd, 2008 at 2:48 am
De-Transition, if anything, takes more courage than the initial decision in my opinion.
It’s not uncommon for an attempt to transition to fail. Sometimes several attempts. It’s not an easy task. Less common is for transition to be a blind alley, but yes, that happens too, rarely.
The thing is, no-one gets a vote in this other than Mike. He’s the only person who knows what’s right for him, and determining what’s right may still be a work in progress.
I would ask that he be kept out of the limelight on this one, while he’s working on it. He has my full support, and I don’t give two hoots about the effect on GLBITQ perceptions.
on Oct 22nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
There is a USAToday blog post about this: http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2008/10/sportswriters-t.html
While certainly Mike/Christine has a right to do as he pleases, I could see where LGBT haters might use this as an example of how transgendered people are just “going through a phase” (which they are not). Not that he’s to blame for these peoples’ attitudes, but I could see them using it for their cause. Anyways, I wish him the best of luck understanding his identity.
on Oct 22nd, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I just hope that everything is OK with Mike. This is clearly a difficult decision to go through, and I’m sure he has a lot to wrestle with.
on Nov 14th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
This is why the best solution is enable people to go through transition before any chance of reasonably normal life are gone. And for MTF that almost always means before full out puberty has started.
I feel for this person…neither choice was easy.
At the same time this discredits the whole process to some extent, which really sucks for the rest of us.
on Jan 7th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
You knew who you were then, girls were girls and men were men.
Sounds like Mike, er, Christine, er, whoever he is today needs help.