Mike 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 identity and name, and in 2009 committed suicide.Mike Penner dies at 52; Los Angeles Times sportswriter
Los Angeles Times, November 29, 2009

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 Identity

Later in his career, in addition to covering sports, Penner began writing about transsexual identity and the process of gender transition from an autobiographical perspective. The first such piece he wrote for the ''Times'' was an essay entitled "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:

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 associated 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 transvestites. 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 document 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-identity 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

*
* Laura Coverson
"Sportswriter Takes Transgender Identity 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 availabl
here

*
*

External links

Woman in Progress
Daniels' blog at latimes.com ot accessible as of October 21, 2008* Mike Penner
"Old Mike, New Christine,"
''Los Angeles Times'', April 26, 2007. Also availabl
here
* John Woolard and Jay Christensen
Interview with Christine Daniels
Sports Overnight America, May 4, 2007.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penner, Mike
1957 births
2009 suicides
California State University, Fullerton alumni
LGBT-related suicides
American LGBT writers
Los Angeles Times people
Sportswriters from California
Suicides in California
People who detransitioned
Suicides by carbon monoxide poisoning
20th-century American male writers
2009 deaths
20th-century LGBT people
American LGBT sportspeople
Transgender writers