Sports reporter to undergo sex change

This procedure is a lot of things, but "natural" is not one of them.

 

Sorry, had to ;D

 

And the fact you foist those notions onto eveyone as if I said and/or believe them makes you irresponsible.

I never said there is no such thing as a prominent byline. You just rattled off some legends in the business. Mike Penner is not a legend in the business. A good guy, maybe, but not so big that we need to know what he's doing with his penis.

 

I never said I wasn't interested in the topic. Totally not amazing that a poster on this board would deduce incorrectly.

A lot of people waved a finger at my opinion (because they can't discern content from form) and then I read five more pages with many agreeing.

AGAIN, FOR THOSE WHO FAILED READING COMPREHENSION: I applaud Christine for doing this. I think it's worthy of being in the paper. I don't think it should have been in sports. I think the way it was done was self-serving. AND IT WAS NOT a publicity stunt, zagoshe. That's a totally ignorant thought.

 

I've not completed treatment. I'm out of pocket about $5000 for medical tests (as my condition is rare - not TS, but the hormonal oddity). About $2000 for hormones, another $3,000 for facial hair clearance - nowhere near complete I might add. $20,000 for the surgery in Thailand - they only do normal sex changes here in Australia, and that requires a normal male anatomy, something I didn't have.
As I'm doing a PhD and am on a subsistence scholarship, less than $20,000 a year before deductions, it will be some time before my treatment is complete. I expect total cost for me to be $80,000 or so, due to my weird metabolism.

FtoMs routinely have to pay $160,000 for the 20 or so operations required. But the Hormones work better on them.

 

BB:

You came around on that last post, a bit. So I'll just make this a strict news judgment deal.

This story belonged in the section that has read Mike Penner's byline for 20 years.

It's the most read and talked about story in the paper and on the web today. It belonged where readers who had the most context would see it.

Forgetting all the personal stuff, it was done exactly correctly -- for the biggest impact in the paper.

 

Hello, all. If Zoe can plop in, I guess I can too. I hope you all don't mind. I'm Toni.

Like Zoe, ask questions, and I'll do my best. One of the most intersting things about TS folks is that we're as different as we are as people. I'm familiar with Zoe indirectly, as a some time reader of her Blog, and I am here from the blog link of an LA media watcher.

That said, here's my status: pre-op MTF (male to female, as opposed to female to male, and I believe I can get Mark Cummings over here if there is an interest in the FTM side of things as well). I've been on hormones a while, started transition in my early 40's. I spend what free time I have posting on various forums and newsboards, usually in response to people such as a certain poster herein. Since I am not entirely finished with transition, I am working anonymously but openly until I complete it. At that point, I'll have to see what life has for me.

I have never been here before, although I might stick around a bit, if'n ya'll will have me.

Insight: Based on what she's describing, and given the nature of her general income and the local support system in her area, if she hooks up with local support groups, she'll likely do the WPATH (link: http://www.wpath.org/) Standard of Care requirement of 1 year Real Life Experience or Test (RLE/RLT) with both hormones and living 24/7 as a woman.

She's likely been preparing for this for several months, and her wife is certainly well aware of it. This is *not* easy for spouses, even if they are aware ahead of time.

I am separated, 1 biological son, 4 step children (3 adult daughters, 1 teenage son, 1 pre-teen son). We are still dealing with this, and right now I will lose all contact with my children. If I have any regrets, the only one I can think of is that I fell in love with a wonderful person and due to the nature of denial, I feel that I decieved her. This is mitigated by son, who is the sun, moon, stars, and the closest I'll ever come to heaven. There is some pain there, as well, since its one of my private dreams to be called mommy by my baby. Not going to happen, but I'll take the blows as they come.

I would like to note a general courtesy: always refer to the transitioning individual in terms of how they would like to be referred to at that time. If you don't know, then, generally, go for the target gender.

TS people (transsexuals) are sometimes referred to as "transgendered". To the best of my knowledge, this is a group umbrella term that includes both transvestites and cross dressers, as well as others. All of them are distinct labels, and there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with them among the subjects concerened because of things like general public connotation.

Also, while there are gay Ts folks (pardon me, I dislike the word on an aesthetic level), ts itself does not mean they are gay. Sexual orientation is not gender -- they are two different constructs.

Someone asked about the name change. This isn't uncommon. The name we are given at birth is assigned to us. The entirety of it represents to some a sort of burden and a sort of curse. Due to the unique nature of my birthname having been changed while I was young, I went back to it -- but had that not been the situation, I would have changed my entire name anyway (and, technically, I did).

There is a reason that this story will be in your ears for a while, as well -- much like Susan Stanton's stroy in Florida (where I am temporarily). At present, in Congress, there are two peices of federal legislation that directly affect TS people. They are highly important to us (and to me) as they address issues of housing and employment and hate crimes. Not to politicize the issue myself (and I apologize for bringing it up), but any of you who have worked a washington beat will be familiar with ENDA and the Matthew Shepard Bill. The language in them that bespeaks of "gender identity" is what deals with us.

On the sports front D), note that the EEOC has had to deal with this issue themselves, as well as the issue of intersexed people (an IAS runner), and that, after consideration of the medical data available at that time, they allow transsexuals to compete in the Olympics (and if that doesn't inspire sports fans fervor, I'm not sure what about this will ;0)

I'll move on and see what other questions there are now.

 

This is truer than many would like to admit.

 

Well, of course everybody is supposed to be an expert on translocated SrY complexes, Limbic Nuclei etc etc... not.
The questions have been anything but sophomoric, and the more outspoken comments have neither targeted me personally, nor expressed anything other than the views of a large section of society. Robust comments rather than Rude ones.
Many good, well-meaning people, thoroughly decent people, see people like me as dangerous perverts who should be euthenased. I'm trying to counter that view through logic, reason, medical papers and, well, evidence.
Yes, I know, I'm naive and foolish.

I Blog. I used to be a main contributor to The Command Post, at one time one of the ten most read blogs on the net. I forget how many million visitors we had, about 50,000 readers a day IIRC. Is that Journalism? Perhaps the Op-Ed pieces, and explanations of the chemical weapons used against Coalition Forces (Binary GB).

Actually I am a Rocket Scientist. Well, spaceflight avionics anyway. Safety Critical Systems. I'm currently doing my PhD at the Australian National University. My unique situation has caused some problems - I'm missing out on a conference in Minneapolis in May because I've been denied an Australian Passport. They don't give those to people who are Transgendered, we're classified in the same category as wanted felons, those being deported or extradited, terrorists, and passport traffickers. The travel document they give us is not recognised as valid by the US (and most other countries).
Apart from that, the financial hassles of medical expenditures on a subsistence income. My whole wardrobe comes from Goodwill.
But... you have no idea of the relief. The most common reaction of people starting transition is that it is like being released from a Death Camp. Sure, problems, but I now know what happiness is. I didn't before.

I guarantee every one of you knows more about Gridiron than I ever will. You know sport, and you know journalism - I know little of one, and perhaps even less of the other!

 

Toni? I thought it was Pat.

 

Her penis.

That says it all, the incongruity, the feeling of wrongness. Understand that, and it all becomes clear.

 

I don't know Penner personally and I'm ex-journalist, but I am transgendered, so I'll try to answer some of the questions. I should note that I'm a cross-dresser (one of the up to as many as 1 in 20 American men who engage in some form of cross-dressing by some estimates), rather than a transsexual, some things I can only speak to from the experiences of people I know and people I've observed.

Before get to specific questions, let mention there's useful style guide info at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association's Stylebook Supplement on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Terminology http://www.nlgja.org/resources/stylebook_english.html and GLAAD's "Transgender Glossary of Terms"http://www.glaad.org/media/guide/transfocus.php Helen Boyd's book "She's Not the Man I Married," about her relationship with her transgendered husband, gives a good perspective on many of the issues.

Why did Penner dread writing the column for so long? Well the reaction by some folks here kind of proves why. Plus the fact that it's not uncommon for transsexuals to get fired/dropped from job considerations when they come out. Ask Steve Stanton or Diane Schroer to name two prominent examples.

As mentioned, the Benjamin Standards of Care do typically require cross-living for a year or two before surgery. It's not clear from Penner's column whether she is having surgery right away -- or whether she's just beginning to cross-live/start hormones when she returns. It may also be that she's having facial feminization surgery, which would help in cross-living. If in fact, she's having genital reassignment surgery, it's possible that due to his high-profile position she may have been cross-living outside of work and that was acceptable to her therapist. (The main point of the SOC is to prevent post-surgical regret, so cross-living might have been considered an acceptable level of "real-life experience.")

Genital reassignment surgery is rarely covered by insurance, although it's starting to be offered. The city of San Francisco was the first and now that there's a track record, insurance companies are becoming more comfortable in offering it, since it turns out that the costs, while expensive for an individual, don't really add much to the cost when you're covering a group. But the lack of insurance coverage is a major issue in regards to official IDs, which (if you can change your gender markers at all) require surgery. Which some people can't do (for medical reasons), or can't afford to since costs can range from $10,000 to $100,000. (Which is why many folks go to Thailand, where the expense is less.) Also, for female-to-male transsexuals the results at still often not great.

As far as Penner's wife. Sadly, most marriages/relationships do break-up when a partner transitions, and I don't blame SOs for that. It's asking them to change both their sexual attraction and how they're perceived by society. The vast majority of TSs who transition in their late 30s/early 40s are attracted to women, so their SOs have to grapple with whether they can be attracted to someone who's now got a women's body, as well as being seen as lesbians. Among lesbian couples, there are equivalent issues when a FTM transitions. Yes, it would have obviously been preferrable for a trans person to disclose that before getting marriage, but as Penner alluded to, many were in deep denial even to themselves. Plus you're talking about society 10-20 years ago, which was far more hostile. I know of at least one person who was forced into a mental hospital by her parents as late as around 1990 for being transgendered. Some marriages do survive. In some the SO is sexually flexible enough that the attraction remains. Some are bisexual, some "person-specific sexual," e.g. a wife might not normally be attracted to women, but is still attracted to her husband. Other marriages survive, but are celibate, e.g. a "sisters" sort of relationship.

As far as the name "Christine Daniels"... I'm speculating here, but most of us use pseudonyms to avoid being outted, and it may have been the name stuck. Changing the last name may also be symbolic for Penner, e.g. putting the past behind, etc.

As far as feeling you're in the wrong body, Lollygagger how did you know you where a boy or a girl? You just knew, yes? Now imagine you woke up with the body of the opposite sex. Might be fun for a bit, but then imagine trying to live in that body the rest of your life. As far as causes, no one really knows for sure. It's probably some combination of biological, social and psychological depending on the individual. From what I've seen, those on the TS end of the spectrum are more likely to involve biological roots. But whle there's a number of suggestive studies, there's nothing conclusive yet, in part because it's not well studied. Bottom line, Henry Benjamin who was one of the pioneering doctors in the field came to the conclusion that since none of the various "treatments" that attempted to reconcile the body to the mind worked, it was better to reconcile the body to the mind.