Sports reporter to undergo sex change

I think Penner's revelation -- and even more so, his decision to live as the other sex -- took TONS of courage.

Stating the obvious here but no one makes a decision like this -- or even an announcement -- as publicity stunt. That's so obvious is hardly deserves a response.

As ZoeB was just informing us, attitudes and resources for people who land in such predicaments are changing across the world. And, yes, those changes are coming to the Sports world.

It's all highly newsworthy -- relevant, interesting and revealing about society and particularly a specific part of society (the Sports world).

You severely miss the boat, IMHO, when you dismiss is as someone "personal business." It is personal business but it's happening in public -- the Sports pages, the NBA are extremely public forums.

AND ONE MORE POINT: Zogosche seems to be saying that Penner motivation is more money? Hell of a way to make a few extra dollars. More importantly, I can only take Penner's word on this, though, as expressed in the column. If Penner courts a big media circus in the wake of this, I'd be surprised. But we don't know how that's going to play do we? Zogosche is just making up stuff in his/her head, not based on anything in reality.

 

About 1 in 5 marriages survive. You must be prepared to lose everything you hold dear if you transition. No access to your children. No assets. Parents usually reject TS children. You mst be prepared to lose your job too.

Now a lucky few lose nothing, but some lose everything, and most lose something.

I hope they stay together. Many marriages do, until surgery.

 

There is a he inside zagoshe. There is also a she. Interesting.

 

I remember reading this when it was published in 2003, former sports writer Sam McManis' profile of a man changing to a woman. McManis always could write and was on the same LAT staff as Penner in the 1980s:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/09/LV159551.DTL

 

This reminded me of an article I read recently. Here is a similar article on the same person, Ben Barres. Barres is a scientist at Stanford who has taken up the cause of discrimination against women in the sciences - because he used to be one.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060714174545.htm

I'm interested in Christine's take after living and working as a woman for a while. Will people's reaction to her change? What about people who don't know her? Will there be a locker room issue? Surely she will notice people treating her differently because she's a woman. This will test a lot of stereotypes.

 

I do admire Mike/Christine for having the guts to write this story, and it was well written and worthy of being in the sports section.

I keep stumbling over the premise of transexualism, though (and at the risk of being labeled the ignorant jerk, I'll lay out my problem). I don't understand the idea of 'knowing' you're a boy but have the body of a girl or the other way around. Are we not born a certain sex, evidenced by our sex organs and the hormones we produce, etc? Is it possible for the mind to then convince itself that the body is lying? To me, that seems far-fetched. Again, I'm posing this more as a question. Does anyone have Web sites that explain this better? Is this a universally accepted medical condition? I really am open to finding more information and looking into it, because I don't know the answer.

 

I'm guessing there's a good chance she's been in on it.

 

Too much soccer.

 

Now what I expected trounced to weigh in with.

 

I've just joined up, and I did this specifically to make a comment here in this subject.

It is indeed myself, picture taken about a week ago. You can see a larger version on my blog.
I started HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy - a week after going fulltime, as Christine is just doing now. Usually it's the other way round, you need years of HRT after age 40 not to stand out. Youngsters around age 20 usually need 6 months at least.
I went fulltime on July 28th, 2005. But that was because I was hormonally odd, I ceased being able to pass as male due to natural changes. It's rare, but it happens - the Joy of (Inter)Sex.
The only surgery I've had was genital reconstruction in November 2006 - from a mostly masculinised mess to something that looks normally female, even to an OB/GYN.

She. Whether She's making a surgical change.
If it was a Horse Race, 10:1 on that she's been taking hormones for a while, 3:2 she's either had or will have FFS (Facial Feminisation Surgery), even money she has SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery) eventually. Only 1 in 5 do, but very few announce their transition in public, so I think she will. In the US, having the wrong shape for your clothes can get you into a lot of trouble.

Married - in name only. We have a boy nearly 6 (took medical help as I was never fully functional as a male, didn't have the neural wiring). We're best G/Fs, roomies, and co-parents. In a Fairy Tale, we'd both be Lesbian. Alas, in Reality, neither of us are. Her having a B/F I can handle. Me having a B/F.. that's still a concept I have difficulty with.
Regrets? I regret that my chromosomes weren't 46xx so I could have had something like a normal girlhood, and been a mother. I got an extra dose of maternal instinct, you see. But if I had been genetically normal, then my son could not have been born. Was his existence worth 40 years of Hell? YES!
I can't really regret not being born with normal male neuroanatomy, as if I had been, I wouldn't exist - my personality would be so different as to constitute a different person. Then again, maybe my partner (who is still the love of my life) and my boy would have been better off. So yes, I regret that. The point is, there wasn't a lot I could do about any of it but play the best game I could with the hand that Fate dealt me.

The more people know, the less prejudice and persecution we will face, so I'm acting out of self-interest. But no matter how bad Transsexuals have it, the Intersexed have it worse. Most people know TS exists, if only from the Jerry Springer show. But few people know of the plight of those women with male chromosomes but CAIS (Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome), or the little girls who at puberty turn into big boys (that's 5-alpha reductase deficiency, 5ARD). Fully 1.7% of the population are Intersexed to some degree - usually mildly, with no overt symptoms. But 1 in 1000 are really in a predicament, often with life-threatening conditions.

Why blame Canada? Are you an Ice Hockey Fan?