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In a piece for the Houston Chronicle, the former Los Angeles Times sports editor Randy Harvey describes for his readers there the 2007 transformation of LAT sports columnist Mike Penner into Christine Daniels. Harvey does not mention Penner or Daniels by name. He is the Chronicle's sports editor now and the peg for his story is Houston's vote to discriminate against gay and transgender people based in part on the phony old canard about bathrooms.
Harvey recounts the day in April 2007 when his Times sports section colleague and friend came in and told his boss that he was now a woman and wanted to leave the sports department, fearing she would not be accepted in the sports world. They met again outside the paper for lunch, this time as a man and a woman. They agreed that Christine Daniels would continue to write about sports, and began with a column in the paper that went public with the news. For a time Daniels wrote a first-person column for the LA Times website, became a big traffic source for the site, and was widely interviewed and written about.
But the transformation became too difficult. From Harvey's piece:
THE CHANGES outside of her job created more of a storm in her life with lost relationships, rude comments directed toward her and expectations that accompany becoming a spokesperson for a misunderstood group of people, although she rarely shared details of her private life with me. She was the same conscientious professional she had always been. She wrote under her new name for more than a year, then asked for a leave of absence.
When she returned months later, she said he wanted to resume writing under her previous name. She said she would live again as a male. She said she wanted her old life back.It could never be.
Daniels byline vanished from the paper for many months, then in Oct. 2008 Mike Penner's byline returned to the Times. On Nov. 28, 2009, the Times reported that Mike Penner had taken his own life.
From Harvey:
Afterward, some in her family blamed her employers for supporting her too much, making it too easy for her to make such a difficult choice. The transgender community blamed her employers for exploiting her.
If you look up her name (or his — it's the same Wikipedia post), it says her writing "became a source of hope for people across the country with gender-identity issues"…..I'm glad she did some good while she was here.
Previously on LA Observed:
Mike Penner takes a big step
Christina Kahrl offers support
Half-million page views for Christine
Editor in Times empire needles Christine
Christine Daniels on 'Day to Day'
Christine Daniels a bonus for web traffic
Mike Penner returns to Los Angeles Times
Mike Penner, 52, believed to be suicide
Requiem for Mike Penner/Christine Daniels
Rick Reilly remembers Christine Daniels and Mike Penner
Christine Daniels story on HBO
