Sports reporter to undergo sex change

The more I think about this, I keep coming back to this, too. Hope she has some great people around her.

 

I think the bottom line for me in all this is ... I am so far from being able to relate to this, to understand what Christine has gone through, to understand her thinking ... it would be absolutely preposterous for me to comment on it. Any area of it, including the suitability for reportage.

 

It belonged in Sports; other points

Penner's piece belonged in Sports. It's a Sports story.

His byline and voice -- he's been a beat writer, columnist, esssayist etc -- is well known among followers of LA Sports over the past 20 years. I moved away more than 15 years ago and his writing and reporting still resonate with me.

The other reason that it's a Sports story is that sports are a male-dominated world and this flies in the face of all of it, yet also is part of an incremental, slow change occurring (John Amaechi is one example).

And the story is more about that than the possible medical implications -- that's a whole other story that would be better off in Features.

Speaking of medical implications, I did not see in his piece that he plans to undergo a "sex change operation." I'm no expert, but I believe being a transexual means dressing and living as the other gender. Many transexuals, in turn I believe, move toward and eventually have, operations. But not all.

On a final note, I would be remiss in not pointing out the obvious: blondebomber is an A-hole and the board would be better off with less of his know-it-all bombast.

 

She's good people. Really good. Funny, clever, cool, fun to drink with, and a professional. I hope she's doing ok.

 

and this is probably the answer to the question of why she wasn't mentioned in his piece. i doubt their marriage was common knowledge among readers.

 

Which brings up a pretty interesting point: what are the qualifications for having a female byline? Does he have to wait until the name change to call himself a herself, or is the paper going to allow him to self-identify as a her from here on in? Because if he doesn't have the plumbing fixed, he's still a he, physically speaking. Obviously if he gets a legal name change, he can call himself Queen Vagina Iamtotallyawoman while being hung like a rhino. But this is uncharted territory.

Well, almost uncharted territory ...

 

The news has definitely shocked the Times newsroom. Here's hoping that the jackasses that roam won't give him/her a hard time.

 

Re: It belonged in Sports; other points

Good catch. I don't think he's having surgery done yet, he's taking time off to make the switch to living as a woman.

I wonder why she will be Christine Daniels instead of Christine Penner.

 

Perhaps he/she wanted a completely new identity to go with the new lifestyle.

 

As I searched Google news to see what others are saying, I found several sites just plainly stating that Penner will "under go a sex change operation" .... "will have sex re-assignment surgery" ...

It was stated so definitively, I went back and re-read the story. No mention that I could see.

Interesting.

It's a story that causes you (or should anyway, if you are reporting it) to break out the dictionary to understand what different terms mean.

One other point: I don't think his marriage (if he is indeed married; I have no idea) is part of this story. That's a much more personal story (no doubt, we can speculate, that is complicated and likely painful). His focus was more narrow: To readers (who are likely to be surprised and might wonder what happened to Mike), about his Sports boss/his job, about his sports (soccer) buddies, etc.

I don't understand when someone writes a column on one topic and people think it should have been about something else, i.e., his marriage, medical implications, etc. Those are other stories that might be told but not this story.

The gist of his story on this day is told in four succinct words: "I'm a transexual sportswriter."

 

I don't understand that. My original thought would have been to run this in features/lifestyles with a refer from the sports front.

 

good points, wayne.

My understanding is you can be transsexual and never had hormones or surgery -- just live your life as the other sex.

Or you could go the whole kit and kaboodle.