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Old Mike, New Christine

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Mar 28 2010 07:45 AM

Must-read Los Angeles Times article here, about former Times columnist Mike Penner's struggle with gender dysphoria, his transition to becoming Christine Daniels, and the sad resolution.

Frayed Knot Mar 28 2010 08:41 AM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

HBO's 'Real Sports' recently did a piece on three different trans-gendered sportswriters including BP's Christina (formerly Chris) Karhl and MLB.com's Bobbie (Bob) Dittmeir, as well as the late Penner/Daniels. It's probably still running from time to time on one of their channels.

A Boy Named Seo Mar 28 2010 11:24 AM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

I try to read the LA Times daily, but the Clips are the only LA sports team I follow so I don't hit the sports very often. I'm familiar with his ex-wife's work, but not his. Very sad stuff. Well-written piece.

Fman99 Mar 28 2010 01:43 PM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

I was trapped in a woman's body once, she was obese. A little Crisco and a pry bar and I was back at the bar again.

Edgy DC Mar 28 2010 06:20 PM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

We're running an article this May about a transgendering eighth-grader. And it all seems too neatly wrapped up, that it doesn't feel honest.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Mar 28 2010 08:15 PM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

"Too neatly wrapped up" = Happy, pat-seeming ending?

Nymr83 Mar 28 2010 08:33 PM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

[quote="Fman99":3252vem2]I was trapped in a woman's body once, she was obese. A little Crisco and a pry bar and I was back at the bar again.[/quote:3252vem2] BOC winner, stop the polls now

Edgy DC Mar 28 2010 08:42 PM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

[quote="LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr":21m9w3no]"Too neatly wrapped up" = Happy, pat-seeming ending?[/quote:21m9w3no] I don't know about "pat," because I don't know what the standards are for such a story, but yes, it ends with a happiness that seems to avoid a dozen hard questions.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 28 2010 08:50 PM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

Can't imagine that the kind of uncomfortableness that would prompt a guy the chop his johnson off would necessarily disappate once he did that. Do they cut their johnsons off? Is that how that works?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Mar 28 2010 10:53 PM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

It depends, I think. As the writer suggested, this realm of sexuality seems a lot longer and finely-gradated a continuum than most of us picture. In prior lives, I've known a few that were pre-surgical for different reasons (some financial, some because the time wasn't "yet right"), and one or two that had no intention to visit the surgeon unless their appendices became inflamed. One especially salient point that the Times writer raises, I think, is the generation gap that appears to exist in the transgender/transsexual between those of Penner/Daniels' age, who had more inflexible, Manichean ideas about sexuality/gender, and the current 20s-30s generation that appear to have a much more fungible view of such roles, and a greater affinity/tolerance for living in sexual "grey space" (the post-Bowie generation?). For someone like Penner/Daniels, this conception suggests, an Adams' apple that hormone treatments can't hide can shatter a tenuous, half-realized new self-image.

Edgy DC Mar 29 2010 05:44 AM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

A problem seems to be starting her "new life" as she's pushing 50. She's crushed because she's unattractive. I might elbow her and say "Chris, it's not like you were an attractive man, either, heh, heh." But most of us at least know we once were vibrant young things. He's awakening to his sexuality after the best years are gone. It's a losing game, being born in mid-life.

metirish Mar 29 2010 07:21 AM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

Well worth reading , sad in many ways , getting so stung by criticism from a fellow journalist who opined in his blog that Christine is " not an attractive woman" I think shows in some ways how difficult the road a head was going to be, having friends monitor the talk radio shows and e-mail feedback it seems to me would drive a person a bit crazy. Noting to do with Christine but the author calls Rick Reilly " ESPN personality Rick Reilly" , a bit of a dig there?

Frayed Knot Mar 29 2010 07:46 AM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

[quote="John Cougar Lunchbucket":17xy34v3]Can't imagine that the kind of uncomfortableness that would prompt a guy the chop his johnson off would necessarily disappate once he did that. Do they cut their johnsons off? Is that how that works?[/quote:17xy34v3] Penner - I don't believe - ever went the surgical route. He used hormone therapy and laser-ed off his body hair, as well as dressed and wigged himself so as to live as a woman, but without "physically" being one. Others do go the full Monty, although the medical field requires that one lives openly as their opposite gender for at least a full year before surgical alteration is even an option. And, yeah, suicide is not an uncommon result of those who choose "transition" hoping it will get rid of their unhappiness. I believe upwards of 1 in 4 was the number quoted in the HBO piece.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Mar 29 2010 08:17 AM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

[quote="Frayed Knot":defg91c3][quote="John Cougar Lunchbucket":defg91c3]Can't imagine that the kind of uncomfortableness that would prompt a guy the chop his johnson off would necessarily disappate once he did that. Do they cut their johnsons off? Is that how that works?[/quote:defg91c3] Penner - I don't believe - ever went the surgical route. He used hormone therapy and laser-ed off his body hair, as well as dressed and wigged himself so as to live as a woman, but without "physically" being one. Others do go the full Monty, although the medical field requires that one lives openly as their opposite gender for at least a full year before surgical alteration is even an option.[/quote:defg91c3] This. I don't think that Penner quite got to the year mark as Daniels, did he?

Frayed Knot Mar 29 2010 08:36 AM Re: Old Mike, New Christine

Don't think he did. no. Plus the fact that he began to "transition back" a short time after not being entirely comfortable in his/her new persona along with the reports of his fragile mental state should have pretty much put off the surgical route being OK'd by a medical team for a real long time, if ever. The HBO piece didn't go into which if any of the trans-sportswriters they focused on had had surgery. It wasn't really the point of the story.