Sports reporter to undergo sex change

Thanks, Zoe.

So how do "straight" guys feel about dating a woman who used to be a guy?

 

Moddy beat me to it.
What he said.

 

Courage? Give me a break with that nonsense. If you feel the need to tell people your personal business that's one thing, but let's not hail this as something more than it is --- a publicity stunt. Just watch how this woman/man's career blows up now.

This is no different than the self-serving, self-important, looking-to-cash-in high profile homo -- like John Amechie -- that feels the need to "come out" -- as if any of us give a rat's ass -- and then mysteriously goes on to do the talk show circuit, write a book and be far more famous for being a homosexual -- or in this case a she-he than for anything they actually accomplished in their real job.

 

Anyone with a thin skin has no business transitioning. A sense of humour* is a necessary survival skill too.

And really, it can be hilarious at times. What do you say to a guy at your 30th High School Re-Union when you both come to the realisation that you were 2nd Row Forwards in the Rugby team? Especially when he's just bought you a drink?

Thanks for the welcome, though. That was a kindness we don't always get.


* - Not a misprint, I'm Australian, we use UK spelling conventions.

 

Inevitability has a way of finding us sooner than we imagine, Moddy.

Again, welcome, Zoe.

 

Who sez Christine and Lisa will split?
Wasn't there an HBO movie a year or so ago that had the husband having a sex change and the couple stayed together or am I thinking of something else?
And I thought it was a fine column to run in sports. If Simers can wax on poetic for 1,000 words on his daughter's marriage to the grocery store bagger, why can't others staffers write about their personal lives?

 

Zoe--That is quite a post....you don't have to answer this, doesn't matter really, but since you appeared here so suddenly...do you post here regularly? And if so, have you ever thought of posting about this before?

Assuming that's your picture on your post....are you physically male, but living as a female? No surgery? Hormones? From Penner's column, it seems unclear whether he's making a surgical change, or just a lifestyle and/or chemical change...any insight there?

Were/are you married? Kids? Do you ever have regrets?

I admire your openness, and your ability to shed some light on this...It's not really our business what Mike Penner does with his life, but it's going to be a topic of conversation for a while, that's for sure...we might as well hae a clue what we're talking about.

(ps, thank you for clarifying your spelling....we like Aussies, we just don't like Canadians, glad you set that straight.... )

 

Zoe can surely speak to this better than I could, but it's the height of ignorance not to realize the job discrimination that could await someone in this position. Writing a column and maybe a book -- to be open ... and yes, maybe make a few dollars to save for a rainy day -- seems fine to me. Don't read it; don't buy it, if you're not interested. But to miss the possibility that someone in this transition could be facing the loss of income or a career by coming out is ... well, short-sighted and a different sort of self-centered.

 

I'm quite sure in "coming out" (whatever the hell that means) this she-he will be financially better off than if she-he had stayed a mostly annonymous hack grinding away on whatever beat it is that he-she calls his own in his little corner of the world.

 

Good for her.

What kind of career move is being an asshole?

 

Like Susan Stanton's down in Florida, perhaps? Being fired is the usual effect, yes. But not in this case.

Please have a look at the women at http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TSsuccesses/TSgallery1.html and the other sites. Remember, for each one of us who dares to "go public", even on obscure websites and forums, there's ten who stay hidden.

Some, mainly entertainers, have capitalised on the publicity. But what about the Programmers, the Airline Pilots, the Doctors, the Chemists, the Engineers?

Apart from the 100 grand cost. And the pain. And the psych clearances. And the medical risks. And the fact that someone looking like you can hide their homosexuality, whereas someone looking like me usually can't hide her unusual medical his-story. No different at all really, just as synchronised swimming is the same as Gridiron if you look at it that way.