Here's a snip from a column filed today by Mike Penner of the Los Angeles Times, who will soon return from a vacation with a new identify: Christine Daniels.
I am a transsexual sportswriter. It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words. I realize many readers and colleagues and friends will be shocked to read them.
That's OK. I understand that I am not the only one in transition as I move from Mike to Christine. Everyone who knows me and my work will be transitioning as well. That will take time. And that's all right. To borrow a piece of well-worn sports parlance, we will take it one day at a time.
Transsexualism is a complicated and widely misunderstood medical condition. It is a natural occurrence – unusual, no question, but natural.
Recent studies have shown that such physiological factors as genetics and hormonal fluctuations during pregnancy can significantly affect how our brains are "wired" at birth.
As extensive therapy and testing have confirmed, my brain was wired female.
A transgender friend provided the best and simplest explanation I have heard: We are born with this, we fight it as long as we can, and in the end it wins.
Reader comment: Mike DeBonis, senior editor with Washington City Paper, says,
Christina Kahrl, who's one of the brains behind Baseball Prospectus, one of the most respected baseball publications around, used to be Chris Kahrl. (She's lived as a woman since 2003, but didn't change her byline until 2005.) Our sports columnist Dave McKenna wrote about it back in summer 2005: Link.
Jeff Simmermon says,
The creators of the television show "Nip/Tuck" are working on a series about a transsexual sportswriter: Link.
The online publication Gender Life is one source for news about these issues — and hey, whaddyaknow, here's another transsexual sports writer in the UK: Link. (Thanks, Andrea James!)
