The Sexist: Sex and Gender in the District
The Case For Eulogizing Christine Daniels
Posted by Amanda Hess on Dec. 1, 2009, at 12:20 pm
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2009/12/01/the-case-for-eulogizing-christine-daniels/Yesterday, I wrote about some of the difficulties facing obituary writers following the death of Mike Penner, a transgender sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times. When Penner was found dead in his home on Nov. 28, his obituary writers were left with an identity problem: Should they remember Penner as male or female?
Penner's career generated significant public interest in 2007 when he came out as transgender, began living publicly as a woman, and changed his L.A. Times byline to Christine Daniels. But late in 2008, Daniels quietly detransitioned back to Mike, reclaimed his original byline, and scrubbed the L.A. Times' Web site of all work attributed to Daniels.
In light of Penner's more recent detransition, most obit writers in both the sports and LGBT communities have chosen to eulogize Penner with male name and pronouns—while still acknowledging that Penner was transgender, and noting the time he lived publicly as Daniels. A few obituary writers, however, have chosen to pay their respects more directly to Daniels, using female signifiers to remember the sportswriter's life.
