The Heartache of Mike Penner/Christine Daniels
The gender transition and suicide of sportswriter Mike Penner/Christine Daniels was chronicled in an article over the weekend by his former employer, the LA Times. Penner/Daniels became an overnight sensation in 2007 when he announced plans for a gender shift in a column for the Times called “Old Mike, new Christine.”
The article discusses in some detail how painful a process the gender transformation was, especially with the added stress of public scrutiny and criticism. Not just from conservatives, but from the transgender community and her colleagues in the media.
In late 2007 Vanity Fair killed a profile piece on Daniels after the author expressed concern that his subject might commit suicide. Sometime in 2008 Penner returned to his male identity, and in November of last year he was dead by his own hand.
In the comments section of the article, a fellow trangendered individual wrote:
Sometimes what makes people leaders is also what kills them, a very precise and absolute intolerance for the status quo.
I want people everywhere to know, we are social animals, some basic community acceptance is paramount to survival. The inability of average people to make the smallest sacrifice in bending long held beliefs, can be lethal to others… lethal. Please, consider it.
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