American sports journalistFor the Canadian businessman, see Michael D. Penner.

Michael Daniel Penner (October 10, 1957 – November 27, 2009) was an American sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times. Penner self-identified as transsexual in a 2007 column; soon afterward he returned from a vacation writing with the name Christine Daniels. In 2008, he resumed his male iden*y and name, and in 2009 committed suicide.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 Professional career
  • 2.1 Gender Iden*y
• 3 Personal life
• 4 See also
• 5 Notes and references
• 6 Further reading
• 7 External links

Early life and education

Born in Inglewood, California, Penner graduated from Western High School in Anaheim and from California State University, Fullerton.

Professional career

Penner began his journalism career at the Anaheim Bulletin as a writer and sports editor. He then joined the Los Angeles Times in 1983 as a staff writer for the paper's Orange County edition. Initially reporting on high school sports, Penner went on to cover a variety of national and international sporting events, including the Olympics, Major League Baseball, tennis, and World Cup soccer.

Gender Iden*y

Later in his career, in addition to covering sports, Penner began writing about transsexual iden*y and the process of gender transition from an autobiographical perspective. The first such piece he wrote for the Times was an essay en*led "Old Mike, New Christine", which appeared in the paper in April 2007. In it, he wrote about his lifelong struggle to come to terms with his transsexuality:

I am a transsexual sportswriter. It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words. ... When you reach the point when one gender causes heartache and unbearable discomfort, and the other brings more joy and fulfillment than you ever imagined possible, it shouldn't take two tons of bricks to fall in order to know what to do.

His wife, Lisa Dillman, submitted divorce papers on May 23, 2007 and said to Penner "I don't even want to see you around the office unless I absolutely have to, and then I want to be as far away as possible. I don't want to be *ociated with it. I don't ever want to see you that way," which crushed Penner. The same week, Penner covered a press conference with Paul Oberjuerge, a writer for the San Bernardino County Sun, also in attendance. Oberjuerge mocked her appearance in an article, stating "Except anyone paying any attention isn't going to be fooled — as some people are by veteran transves*es. Maybe this is cruel, but there were women in that room who were born women in body, as well as soul. And the difference between them and Christine was, in my mind, fairly stark. It seemed almost as we're all going along with someone's dress-up role-playing." Penner was deeply hurt over the comments, and a fan campaign succeeding in getting the Sun to remove the post.

Penner lived and wrote as Christine Daniels for more than a year, continuing to do*ent his own experience with gender transition in the LA Times' blog "Woman in Progress". Daniels' writing became a source of hope for people across the country with gender-iden*y issues.

Shortly after Penner's 50th Birthday, he went to a studio for a photoshoot by photographer Robert Maxwell for Vanity Fair. Penner's transgender friends stated Maxwell had tried to sex her up and pushed her to pose provocatively, which Penner described as traumatizing. Penner wrote a letter to Vanity fair asking to kill the piece.

Penner wrote as Christine Daniels from July 2007 until about March 2008; without elaboration, he resumed using Mike Penner as his byline in October 2008. Penner moved in with transgender friend Amy LaCoe later that summer. LaCoe had been inspired by Daniels and counseled them before they came out initially, and with conflicted feelings helped her friend transition back. Penner tore up several notebooks he kept in transgender therapy, donated his clothes and jewelry, and ceased attempts to feminize himself. He then ordered her friends to call him Mike again. Though it broke LaCoe's heart, she didn't judge and helped her friend with the process.

Penner repeatedly told friends his return to a male lifestyle was a last ditch effort to reunite with Dillman, though he knew the odds were slim. Before coming out publicly, having to return to his male persona when leaving safe trans-affirming spaces would leave him incredibly distressed. Friends had noticed how when living initially as a man he had been quiet and kept to himself, but there was a joy and energy to Christine that shone through more. When living as Mike the second time, he was "sullen, visibly depressed, and quiet". Later in 2008, Penner went to Metropolitan Community Church(MCC) and privately confessed to the Rev. Neil Thomas "Don't you ever believe that I've given up being Christine." Rev. Thomas later stated "I knew exactly what he meant. Everything about his body, everything about his fabric, everything that made him human was still screaming, that had been screaming for 40 years, that got to the point of Mike transitioning to Christine," and that Penner had "hoped returning to Mike could possibly lead to reconciliation with Lisa. He loved Lisa, there was no doubt about it." Penner's brother John also told LaCoe "he had never seen his brother happier than in the heyday of his life as Christine." Diana, a friend who Penner had met in a transgender support group said "Christine died of a broken heart. She wasn't confused about whether she was meant to be a woman. Any other reading of the situation is disrespectful to her memory."

Penner was a member of the Times' sports staff at the time of his death.

Personal life

Penner was at one time married to fellow Los Angeles Times sportswriter Lisa Dillman although at the time of his death they were divorced.

Penner was found dead in his Los Angeles home on November 28, 2009, of an apparent suicide, a year to the day after his divorce with Dillman had been finalized. A funeral closed to media was dedicated to Mike Penner, transgender friends who'd known him were turned away at the door for not being on the guest list. Amy LaCoe was the sole transgender friend invited to the funeral. MCC had a public memorial for Christine Daniels. Since 2010, MCC has annually distributed the Christine Daniels Scholarship.

See also

• List of transgender people

Notes and references

Further reading

• Pieper, Lindsay Parks (March 2015). "Mike Penner 'or' Christine Daniels: the US media and the fractured representation of a transgender sportswriter". Sport in Society. 18 (2, Gender, Media, Sport): 186–201. doi:10.1080/17430437.2013.854472. ISBN:978-1-138-93639-3. S2CID:144594618.
• Laura Coverson, "Sportswriter Takes Transgender Iden*y Public; Mike Penner of the L.A. Times Wrote a Column to Explain Some Changes, Including His New Name: Christine," ABC News, April 27, 2007. Also available here.
• "L.A. Times sports writer reveals he's transsexual". ESPN. *ociated Press. 26 April 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
• "Trans sports journalist raises visibility". Pink News. Gaysports.com. 27 April 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2019.

External links

• Woman in Progress, Daniels' blog at latimes.com
• Mike Penner, "Old Mike, New Christine," Los Angeles Times, April 26, 2007. Also available here
• John Woolard and Jay Christensen, Interview with Christine Daniels Sports Overnight America, May 4, 2007.